


Hell's Belles

by indiepjones46



Series: Chance in Hell [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Be cool and read it, Biblical References, Demons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Porn, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hell, I post fast, I reply to all comments, I won't leave you hanging, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Porn With Plot, Porny porn porn, Post-Season/Series 04, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Rescue Mission, Sex, Spoilers, Unnecessarily Detailed Smut (UDS), Wingfic, Work In Progress, explicit violence, horny devil, i love porn, mild blasphemy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-03-17 15:55:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18968473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indiepjones46/pseuds/indiepjones46
Summary: ***Season 4 Spoilers!***Chloe has a permanent round-trip ticket to Hell, but when she finds out the cost, she must decide if the reward is worth the risks. Lucifer is in a Hell of his own waiting for her return, but he is not there alone.





	1. Chloe

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Don't own or profit from any of this. Just borrowing them for sexy playtime.
> 
> Beta: Nah, I do my best to catch any little mistakes on subsequent read-throughs, but I am always grateful for any helpful hints.
> 
> Notes: Wow! You guys have rocked my socks off with your warm welcome! I can't thank you all enough for the kudos and kind words. I hadn't planned on making this story into a series, but I can't ignore the requests for more or the excitement of crafting some hot, Unnecessarily Detailed Smut for DeckerStar. Hang in there with me, guys. I try to post a new chapter at least every few days, and I won't leave you hanging. This one is for y'all.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” Mazikeen asked, her dark eyes glittering with excitement.

Chloe chewed on her lip and stewed in silence. To be honest, she hadn’t gotten that far yet. All she knew was that Lucifer didn’t belong in Hell anymore than she did, and she wanted him back here on earth with her. She wanted to see his cheeky grin, hear the drawling innuendos, and smell the intoxicating mixture of bourbon and cigarette smoke on his breath. She wanted to spend her days with him solving murders, and her nights with him in her bed. Mostly, she just wanted him back, especially now that she had experienced his passion. She hadn’t been lying or joking when she’d told Lucifer that she felt born again after he took her in his devil form. Chloe had never experienced that level of passion and desire in her life, and she needed more of it. More of him.

“I was kind of hoping that you would have some ideas,” Chloe confessed sheepishly. “I’m still new to this whole thing, and I am now fully aware of the scope of my ignorance when it comes to angels and demons. I am totally out of my depth here, and that’s why I need your help. If you go back with me, maybe we can figure it out together.”

Maze huffed in frustration and abruptly returned her knives to their hiding places on her body. “I was afraid you were going to say that,” she said sourly. “I _can’t_ go back to Hell, Chloe. Not without wings. Lucifer refuses to take me back, and Amenadiel won’t leave Linda and Charlie unprotected to take me, either. You’re going to be on your own there. The only thing I can do is wait here.” Her tone was bitter and angry, and Chloe could tell it was a sore subject for her.

Still, Chloe needed answers. “Why can’t you go back? The other demons disappeared on command when Lucifer told them to go home. You’ve got his mark on your palm. Can’t you just speak his name and go back like they did?”

Maze rolled her eyes impatiently and snapped, “No, I can’t. The mark only allows a demon’s consciousness to pass through the gates, not their physical forms. They can animate a human corpse, because the soul is no longer in the way, but it’s a tricky business. Without their soul, humans decompose at an alarming rate, so they are forced to find new hosts frequently. The smell always gives them away.”

Chloe’s mind twisted in knots trying to solve the puzzle, but she needed more information. “Okay, but what about you? You’ve been in the same body for the entire time I’ve know you. What makes you different?”

The demoness sighed heavily, and Chloe felt like an annoying toddler tugging at the teacher’s skirt. “This is my actual body, Decker. I’m not possessing a sexy-as-hell corpse. All of me is right here in your kitchen. Lucifer flew me here with him, so I’m stuck here until he decides to take me back home.”

Chloe felt a bit stung that Maze was so eager to leave them. Not only did Trixie adore and idolize her, but Chloe had grown attached to the dangerous, sensual charm of her former roommate. Knowing she was a real demon had given her pause at first, but the evidence was clear that Maze would never harm them. At least, not _again_. In fact, she had noticed a marked difference in the demoness’ attitude the longer she was around humans. Chloe couldn’t deny the instinct that screamed that Maze needed them, too.

Taking a chance, Chloe reached across the countertop to grip Maze’s hand between her own. “This is your home, too, Maze,” she reminded her sincerely. “You have friends here and a great career that you love. Is it really so bad to stay?”

Maze squeezed her hand briefly before snatching it away as if burned. Her expression shuttered, and her voice was cold when she replied, “I have those things only as long as I look and act like one of you. I’m not human, Chloe, and I have to hide that fact 99% of the time. There are only two humans who have seen even a portion of my true face and survived it, and one of them nearly had a nervous breakdown. Linda finally managed to come to terms to with it, but I also haven’t shown her again.”

She knew they were getting off-track, but Chloe was too fascinated to care. “What about the other human? How did they react?”

Maze’s eyes unfocused and her lips softened into a secretive smile. “She thought I looked cool.”

She didn’t have to tell Chloe the name, because she just knew it was Trixie. If her daughter could handle seeing Maze’s demon form, then she could, too. “You know, you don’t have to hide around me, Maze. I know the truth, and I’m not afraid anymore. In case I didn’t spell it out plainly earlier, I had sex with Lucifer in his devil form. I’m pretty sure I can handle a demon.”

Maze’s laughter was both spontaneous and malicious. A spark of devilment illuminated her exotic features, and her tone was sly as she replied, “Oh, you think you can handle a demon? Let’s just see about that.”

Before Chloe was ready for it, Maze’s face transformed, but only half of it. The right side of her face and visible skin remained exactly the same, but the left side of her was a terrifying nightmare. She looked like the decomposing corpse of a burn victim with only stringy tendons left to hold her mouth closed. Chloe could clearly see her flashing white teeth through the missing flesh of her cheek, and the exposed parts of her skull were framed by melted viscera. Her left eye was perpetually exposed without eyelids with a milky film obscuring her dark brown iris. She was more frightening than anything Chloe had ever seen in a horror film, but she did not flinch.

She may have peed her pants a little, though, but Maze didn’t have to know that.

Chloe forced herself to ignore the instinctive fear of the unknown that threatened to claw up her throat, and instead focused on seeing Maze as she truly was. Once the initial shock wore off, she found that she even enjoyed the stark dichotomy of life and death represented by her friend’s two halves. It was a perfect representation of Mazikeen’s own nature; she was both light and dark, tender and violent. She was monstrously beautiful.

“How do you keep food and drinks from falling out of your mouth when you eat?” Chloe asked, leaning in for a better look. “Can you still see clearly out of that eye? It looks like one hell-of-a cataract.”

A startled laugh burst from the demoness’ mouth, and Chloe could see all the way through her face to her tongue. “I’ve had plenty of practice at it over the millennia, and my left eye can see more than the right,” Maze replied lightly. She paused to search Chloe’s face for any sign of disgust, and whatever she saw there must have satisfied her. With grudging respect, she said, “I have to hand it to you, Decker. You managed to surprise me, and that doesn’t happen often.”

Chloe shrugged her shoulders and answered honestly, “What can I say? Trixie was right. You do look cool.”

Maze cleared her throat and looked away, and her face resumed its human appearance before her eyes. If Chloe didn’t know better, she would say that the demoness was embarrassed. “We’re getting off track,” she sidestepped the compliment neatly. “The fact remains that I can’t go with you, so you’re on your own if you go back. All I can do is be here to guard your body while you’re gone. I’m afraid I can’t help like you want me to.”

Chloe was disappointed for half a second before the rest of what she’d said registered. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘guarding my body’? Won’t my body be going with me?” she asked, her voice rising with her panic.

Maze’s eyebrows raised and she looked at her as if she was crazy. “No, dummy,” she said, her tone exaggerated and patronizing, “Hell exists on the celestial plane, and human flesh is not capable of withstanding the atmospheres. The only way a human can enter is via their soul.”

The blood drained from Chloe’s head to pool in her stomach where it churned the burger and fries into a queasy knot. The stark reality of returning to literal Hell was beginning to descend on her with terrifying reality. The more she learned about angels and demons, the more out of her depth she felt. There was no rhyme or reason to any of this, and it made her feel vulnerable and small.

She swallowed the bile rising in her throat and tried desperately to reason her way through it. “How, Maze? In case it’s escaped your notice, I’m not dead. And if my soul does manage to leave my body, I _will_ be dead. This isn’t going to work.”

Somehow, Maze managed to pick up on her signals, because she changed her tone. “Don’t freak out on me now, Decker,” she said, her tone mildly teasing. “You’re thinking like a human again. Lucifer’s mark will act as a magnet, drawing your soul through the gates, leaving your still-alive body behind. As long as your soul returns, you should be fine.”

Hysterical laughter bubbled up from Chloe’s throat, and she pushed away from the counter to pace across the kitchen. “ _Should_ be fine? That’s really reassuring, Maze,” she said bitterly. “You just told me that the human bodies decompose without the soul. How is everything going to be fine if my soul leaves my body? The body can’t exist without a soul.”

The teasing light faded from Maze’s dark eyes and her tone was decidedly sharp when she replied, “Mine does, and so does every other demon in Hell, but humans are different. Your soul is tethered to your body until the moment your physical body dies, but it can leave for a short time like a rubber band stretching from its source. You will still be connected, but that doesn’t mean there is no danger. While separated, anything that happens to your soul will happen to your physical body, and vice versa.”

Chloe’s head hurt from the overwhelming amount of information that Maze unleashed upon her. With rote motions, she searched the kitchen cabinet for a bottle of aspirin and popped two of them before answering, “Is that why it felt like I was really there with him last night? It was only my soul that had been there, and not my actual body? Is that why the mark is on my skin and I woke up naked?”

Maze nodded, boredom beginning to cloud her expression. “Pretty sure I already explained that, but whatever,” she drawled, clearly growing impatient. “So, are we doing this, or what?”

Chloe bit back the instinctive shout of “Hell no” that swelled against her throat. She couldn’t afford to alienate Maze again. She needed more information, more evidence, more insight into the workings of Hell if she were going to help Lucifer come back with her. But first, she needed time to think.

Rubbing the creased lines between her eyebrows, Chloe sighed heavily and replied, “Yes, Maze. I’m going back to see him, but I need some time to prepare. I need to check in with my captain and with Dan, and I want to talk to Trixie. How about you come back tonight around 8 pm? That should give me enough time.”

The demoness snorted derisively. “Enough time to freak the fuck out and change your mind, you mean.” Still, she stood to her feet and headed toward the front door as she called over her shoulder, “I’ll be here at 8 o’clock sharp, Decker. You better be ready, because you are the only one who can reach him now.”


	2. Chloe

Chloe spent the remainder of the day doing her best to keep herself too busy to think, but nothing could distract her from formulating all the ways this idea could go terribly wrong. She called her captain and assured him that she was resting while on her “vacation” and that she was looking forward to getting back to work, but he did not seem convinced. Next, she called Dan. It was so tempting to spill everything she knew to him, but it would be a futile waste of time. Not only would he not believe her, but he would likely think she had completely lost it. Instead, she chatted with him about his active cases and managed to casually mention that she had procured a new therapist. There was no reason for him to know that it was Linda, or that their relationship was not exactly a professional one of doctor and patient. Still, he seemed mollified enough that she felt confident that he wouldn’t show up at her place to check on her anytime soon.

Finally, she called Trixie’s new cell phone and spent a solid hour on Facetime with her daughter. They talked and chatted about all the exciting plans in store for the next two weeks, which included her cousin’s _quincea_ _ñera_ , a trip to the zoo, and daily use of her abuela’s swimming pool. Trixie’s beautiful little face was all smiles, and happiness shone from every pore with potent little-girl-magic, and Chloe soaked it up like a dry, thirsty sponge. For the first time in weeks, she found herself smiling and laughing as her daughter regaled her with Dan’s family gossip and scandals. Trixie was having the time of her life, and it made Chloe both desperately happy and equally heartbroken, because it made her realize that it had been weeks since Trixie had smiled and laughed, too. Her little girl was happy now, but it was because she wasn’t with her mother.

“Listen, monkey,” Chloe turned serious as their conversation wound to a close, “While you’re gone, I want you to know that if I don’t answer your calls or texts right away, it’s not because I don’t want to talk to you. I’m going to be doing some traveling for the next few weeks, and there’s no reception where I’m going. I promise I will call or text you back as soon as I can, okay?”

 _“I know, Mom,”_ her baby replied with an exaggerated eye roll. _“Maze already told me.”_

“WHAT?” Chloe exclaimed loudly before catching herself. She schooled her features, cleared her throat, and continued in a more moderated tone, “Uh, what did Maze tell you exactly?”

Trixie giggled at her reaction and explained, _“She told me you were going to find Lucifer and bring him home. She texted me about it a few hours ago.”_

Chloe closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, yes, I guess that is the plan, but I wish she had let me explain first.”

A muted _beep_ interrupted their conversation, and Trixie chirped, _“Hold on, Mom. She just texted me again.”_ A few beats of silence ensued before her face appeared on the screen again, but this time she was not happy. Little frown lines deepened between her eyebrows, and her eyes were narrowed with pique. _“Maze says she thinks you’re going to change your mind about going. Don’t you want Lucifer to come back?”_

Oh, she was going to give that demon an earful about using her daughter as a manipulation tool. For now, she was too focused on Trixie to care. “Of course, I do, baby,” she answered sincerely. “But the place where I’m going can be dangerous. I have to consider the risk, because I want to come home to you.”

Concern added age to her daughter’s face, and Chloe saw a glimpse of the beautiful young woman she would grow to be, and it made her heart swoop with love. _“But Mom, you’re the police. If Lucifer is in a dangerous place, he’ll need your help to get out of it. Maze said he wasn’t very good in a fight.”_

Chloe couldn’t help the startled laughter that bubbled from her throat. “Compared to Maze, he’s probably not,” she agreed readily. “I really want to find Lucifer and bring him home, but not more than I want to be here with you. You know that, right?”

Trixie nodded her head, but she would not be swayed from her course. _“I know, but I’m not there right now, so you should find him and tell him to come back to L.A. You’re happier when he’s with you.”_

God, Chloe felt like such an asshole. She thought she had been able to hide her heartbreak from her daughter, but she apparently hadn’t been successful. She blinked back the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes and said with a watery smile, “You make me happiest, monkey, but you’re right. Being with Lucifer makes me happy. How does he make you feel?”

Trixie made a rude noise and gave her another dramatic eyeroll. _“Are you kidding me? Lucifer is awesome! He’s hilarious and drives a cool car, and he always orders all the desserts on the menu when we go out to eat.”_

Chloe laughed at her daughter’s ringing endorsement of the Devil. “Yeah, he is pretty awesome, isn’t he? So, you’re okay with me going away for a few weeks to find him?” she clarified for her own peace of mind.

Trixie sighed dramatically and intoned, _“Yes, Mom! I have to go now. Abuela is going to teach me how to make tamales for dinner.”_

Reluctantly, Chloe said her farewells, repeated that she would check in with her every day, and told her she loved her at least a dozen times before Trixie finally hung up on her. Chloe sat there staring at her phone for a long time as she grappled with herself. She was desperate to go back to Lucifer, but the risks were unknown and potentially deadly. Damn it, why hadn’t Lucifer explained all of this _before_ he marked her?!

By the time 8 pm rolled around, Chloe had made her decision. She was dressed in a tight-fitting pair of dark jeans, plain red tee shirt tucked at the waist, and her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. When she heard the sound of Maze’s key in the lock, she fastened her holster to her waistband and waited for the demoness to find her standing next to her bed.

It didn’t take her long. Maze paused in her doorway to look her up and down, and her lips twisted with scorn. “I knew you were going to chicken out, Decker. You should have just gone all the way and texted me, so I didn’t waste a trip.”

Chloe pulled her gun from the holster, popped the magazine, counted the rounds, and slammed it back together. Placing it seamlessly back in its holster, she finally replied icily, “Oh, I’m going, Maze. So, I suggest you stock up on some snacks and use the bathroom, because you are going to park your ass in that chair and not move until I return. You will guard my body and watch my back as if I were Lucifer himself. That is what I am asking of you. That is how you can help me bring Lucifer back.”

The demoness raised her dark eyebrows with reluctant respect and drawled, “Daaaamn, Decker. I didn’t think you had it in you. Keep impressing me like that and I might actually start to think you deserve him someday.” Chloe narrowed her eyes at her in warning, and Maze capitulated easily. “Of course, I’ll do it. I already told you I would, but you can’t blame me for assuming you weren’t going to go. Look at those clothes! You won’t need them where you’re going anyway.”

Chloe’s shoulders lost some of their tension, and she sat down abruptly on her bed. “I’m not going there for a booty call, Maze. This is a fact-finding mission,” she explained dryly. “I’m not going to lie; I’m scared. I truly am freaking the fuck out about my soul going to Hell, but I will do it for him. I can’t leave him there, Maze. He’s miserable, and I’m miserable without him. I’m going to bring him back with me somehow. I just don’t know how yet.”

Maze strolled over to the cushy armchair next to her bed and collapsed into it gracefully. “Well, you’re not going to do it with that gun,” Maze quipped smartly, kicking her boots in the air. “Not only are you grossly outnumbered, but bullets won’t stop a demon in its true form. Do you know how to use a knife?”

Chloe carefully arranged herself for maximum comfort on her bed, but she did not remove her gun. “I wasn’t even sure it could go with me,” she confessed bluntly. “I figured if I was wearing it when I use the mark, it may act like my clothing and cross over, too, but what do I know? I don’t know the rules to any of this, Maze. I’m just making them up as I go along and hoping I don’t die.”

Maze sobered and her tone was sincere when she said, “You got this, Decker. Lucifer won’t let anything bad happen to your soul, and I won’t take my eyes off you for a second. I’m not just doing this for Lucifer, you know. I’m doing it for you and Trixie, too.”

Chloe closed her eyes against the emotional tears springing to life and schooled her features. She couldn’t afford to give in to weakness right now. “Thank you, Maze. If anything goes wrong or you think I’m gone too long, call Amenadiel immediately. He’ll know what to do.”

“I wish you hellspeed, Decker,” her friend intoned seriously. “You’re going to need it.”

Chloe took a deep breath and released it slowly and purposefully before she slipped her fingers through the V-neck of her tee and found the mark easily with her fingertips. Though there was no discernable difference in the texture of her skin, the mark made its presence known through heat. She’d had plenty of time during the day to study it from every angle. Lucifer’s mark glowed an unnatural, vivid crimson, and the delicate loops of his name were noticeably warmer to the touch than the rest of her. It was as if he’d tattooed his name on her breast with boiling blood. She was never unaware of its existence, because she could feel the open connection between her soul and Lucifer. It was both terrifying and thrilling, because his mark was more than just a tattoo or brand. It was an open invitation to Lucifer’s own soul. He had made himself vulnerable for her and trusted her not to hurt him again. How could she repay that with anything less than the same?

She was done thinking about it. When she felt the heat of his name begin to burn her fingertips, she formulated a picture of him in her mind. Memories of Lucifer in every state played through her mind, but one memory rose unbidden to the surface. It was the night Lucifer invited her to the prom. He had surprised her by pinning a corsage to her chest and had escorted her to the empty dancefloor at Lux, and they had danced and held each other close as they shared confidences and intimate moments. She wanted the chance to dance to him again here on earth. She didn’t know whether to call it selfishness or love, but it didn’t matter. She wanted him back, and she was willing to go to Hell and back to do it.

“Lucifer Morningstar,” Chloe breathed his name. “Lightbringer, Samael, Ruler of Hell, open the gates.”


	3. Lucifer

_Somewhere in Hell..._

Lucifer paced the rooms of his dark palace, growling and snapping at any demon brave enough to approach him. With the insurrection so thoroughly squashed, there was little remaining for him to do. Everything was right back to the same way it was before he’d ever left. This literally was his Hell; one of eternal boredom. There was nothing new or different to distract him from thoughts of Chloe. When would she come back to him? _Would_ she come back to him? How much longer would he have to wait to find out?

There was no such thing as the concept of time in Hell. There was no sunrise or sunset, no twinkling stars or luminescent moon, and no changing of the seasons to mark the passage of existence. Instead, the atmosphere was full of steamy fog that perpetually rained flakes of ash and glowing embers, and the only natural light was the flickering of blue hellfire that burned in the deep lake surrounding his kingdom. There were no trees or flowers to add color to the blue-gray landscape, no parties or dancing to add life to the misery, and worst of all, there was no music. No matter which instrument he brought back with him, they always played off-tune, and no songs were sung because they always fell flat. There was no beauty in Hell, no rest from the desolate misery of the place, nothing to anticipate or discover, so measuring time was pointless. He had no idea how long it had been since Chloe fell asleep in his arms before disappearing, but it felt like eons.

Lucifer stalked into his study, slamming the door behind him, and headed for the gleaming, black marble-topped bar that ran along the length of one wall. His hands worked independently to pour himself a tumbler of fire whiskey, but his mind was far away from his task. All he seemed capable of doing was replaying every single moment of her visit over and over again. He had no desire to punish or torture the wicked, no craving for sins of the flesh with willing demons, and no thirst for the potent liquor that flowed freely from every tap. All he had been able to do was wander from room-to-room as he envisioned what he wanted to do to her next. He only wanted one thing. Her.

Now that he had tasted her cries of ecstasy and felt her sweet, tight cunt wrapped around him, he couldn’t think about anything else but making it happen again. Lucifer had always been a highly sexual being, and he had been the inventor and inspiration for most sexual deviancy among humans, but sex with Chloe had been new and exciting. Every touch, every taste, every sound that she’d made had been a revelation and a gift. He could only surmise that it had something to do with his feelings for her. Was this what love did for humans? Made sex even better than it was already? No wonder they seemed so obsessed with the strange emotion.

He wanted to try everything with her. Would she enjoy being taken from behind as he flew her through the air? Would she relish the sting of his palm against the soft cushion of her ass? Would the Detective want to be tied up and teased for hours before he finally let her come? Had she ever had anal sex before, and would she want to do it with him? There was so much for them to discuss! He wasn’t sure how many sexual partners she’d had in her lifetime, but if they were anything at all like Dan the Douche, he couldn’t imagine that she had very much experience to draw from. Maybe Lucifer could even be her first at something. That idea made something dark and primal inside of him sit up and take notice.

With a foul curse, Lucifer tossed back a large swallow of the fire whiskey as he adjusted his stiff cock with the other. His cock had never gone back down since he’d come like a geyser inside her, and the bloody thing was a constant, throbbing reminder that she had not yet returned. No matter how uncomfortable the ache grew, though, he refused to ease his suffering by taking matters into his own hand, because he knew it wouldn’t suffice. Neither did he want male or female demon partners; they could not hold a candle to the innocent, honest reactions of his Detective. He was trapped in a hell within Hell until she returned.

He plucked a cigarette from the tray on the bar, brought it to his lips, and lit the tip of it with only a thought. Just as he exhaled the first lungful of smoke, the door to his study swung open without a knock to admit someone who was most definitely not the Detective. The demoness who sauntered through the door approached him with the confidence of someone who had always been welcomed in Lucifer’s presence, and she had earned the right over countless centuries. Her skin was the absence of light, her long hair the curl of black smoke, and her form shifted and changed as she walked so that you never got a glimpse of her true face. Lucifer knew this demon well, in every way and position possible, but even he could no longer remember what she had looked like when she’d fallen with him so long ago. This demoness was powerful, only equal to Mazikeen, but their skills lay in very different areas. While Maze had been in charge of the physical punishments for human souls, this demoness had been the master of psychological torture. She could mine the subconscious of her victims and take on the faces and forms that would most haunt them, and she relished every scream of fear and moan of agony that she could squeeze out of the damned souls. There had been no limit to her ability to keep Lucifer occupied by changing gender and appearance over their acquaintance; the ways in which she could seduce and manipulate him were Legion.

He had no desire to see or speak with her now, though. Her appearance did nothing more than irritate him further. “I believe I left specific instructions with the staff clearly stating I was not to be disturbed,” he greeted her coldly. “That includes you, Legion.”

Her form shifted mid-step, and she was a seductive young Asian woman with perky tits spilling out of a low-cut dress. “You have never regretted allowing me close, Lucifer. Why should this time be any different?”

He took a deep drag of the burning tobacco into his lungs and dispelled it with force. “Because I said so,” he bit off shortly. “I do not owe you an explanation. I am the ruler, and you are the subject.”

Her form shifted again, and a tall, muscular bear of a man who had a bald head, trimmed goatee, and arms that had the strength to pin him to a bed appeared. His voice was rough and deep with liquid sin as he said, “You were gone far longer this time than any other in my long memory,” Legion said, neatly avoiding the order to leave. “I have missed you, Lucifer. We have all missed our King. Perhaps you will allow me to show you how much.”

Lucifer glowered at the demon in disgust. “Well, I didn’t miss any of you,” he replied, his words slicing through the air like poison darts. “You and your kindred have ruined _everything_. I was finally on the cusp of having it all when Dromos showed up and sent it all to Hell. Including me.”

Before his eyes, the big man morphed into a rounded, voluptuous woman with long, wavy red hair, emerald eyes, and plump lips that would look at home wrapped around a hard cock.  She ignored his wrath easily and reached past him to pour herself a drink. “You can’t blame the sins of a few on the entire host, my Lord. The remainder of our number were content to eagerly await your eventual return. Your loyal subjects should not be punished, Lucifer. We should be rewarded.”

Lucifer made a rude noise before tossing back another swallow of the liquor. “Rewarded?” he repeated derisively. “Would you like to be rewarded like Dromos, Squee, and the others? I can certainly have it arranged.”

Legion’s lips curled with predatory lust as she brazenly pressed her considerable assets against his chest. Her long, red fingernails walked a trek along his breastbone and her voice was drenched in female honey when she breathed, “Oh, no, Lucifer. That is not the reward I desire.” Her hand moved boldly across the muscled plains of his abdomen heading unerringly for his obvious erection. “I want you, my King.”

He was not gentle with her as he pushed her away. He paced several meters away from her and snapped, “I do not want you to touch me, Legion! You are not who I want. You will _never_ be who I want again.”

Her eyes bled to all black, and they narrowed on him with vengeful reproach. “We shall see about that, my King,” she hissed venomously.

Her form wavered and blurred, and Lucifer braced himself for what he would see next. Before her form took shape, he already knew who he would see next. But even knowing, he was still rocked to his core to see Chloe standing before him. She looked just the same as she had when he’d found her sleeping in his bed. She was Chloe dressed only in panties and his dress shirt with her blonde hair tousled from sleep. She was beautiful and vulnerable, ripe for claiming, and standing right in front of him.

“Don’t,” he managed to choke out past the sawdust in his throat. He knew it wasn’t the Detective, but he couldn’t look away from her. “Don’t wear her face, Legion. You will forget she even exists.”

 

_Lucifer Morningstar..._

The echo of her voice filtered through his head as the demon Chloe slowly closed the distance between them walking on bare feet, and she snuggled back into his chest where she fit like a puzzle piece. Unbidden, Lucifer’s arms closed around her waist, pulling her in even tighter to his body, as she said with Chloe’s voice, “I’m here for you, Lucifer. Let me give you what you need. Ease your sorrows upon this body, slake your passion on me. I will give you anything you desire.”

 

_Lightbringer...Samael...Ruler of Hell..._

Her voice was getting louder, drawing him deeper into the fantasy that she was in his arms and cushioned against his painfully engorged shaft. It would be so easy to forget that he was holding a demon, simple to believe it was really her. Lucifer reached up to cup her jaw in his palm, and his thumb caressed the along the sweep of her cheekbone. She was so lovely that he would never tire of looking upon her. This was the only face he desired, the only one he ever wanted to see light up with a smile, the only one he wanted to touch and taste and feel. She was the light in his darkness, the beacon of salvation that promised riches far beyond what was offered in the Silver City, and he yearned to follow wherever she led him.

 

_Open the gates..._

 

As if her full, bottom lip was a magnet, his head lowered until they were only a breath apart. “They will always be open for you, love,” he whispered as Chloe ran her hand boldly over his aching shaft.

Without waiting for further permission, she closed the distance between their mouths and kissed him with all the fire and passion he so craved from her. Chloe was desperate to have him; her hands flew over the buttons of his shirt and tugged at his belt buckle as he held her face captive for his kiss. He wanted to lose himself in her, but something held him back. The spark that usually ignited when he was near her was missing, and the words pouring from her lips didn’t ring true to his ears.

“You belong here with me, Lucifer,” she said, her tone covetous and calculating. “You are our King, and I will be your Queen. We will rule side-by-side forever and never be parted again.”

Lucifer pulled back from where he was kissing along her neck and shook his head. “No, that’s not right. The Detective would never say that.”

“You’re goddamned right I would never say that,” her furious voice came from across the room. His eyebrows narrowed in confusion, and he looked from the Chloe in his arms to the Chloe standing across the room with her gun drawn and pointed at her doppelganger. “Who the hell is that, Lucifer, and why does she look like me?” the real Chloe demanded, her voice strong and full of authority.


	4. Lucifer

Lucifer dropped his hands as if burned and took several steps back from the false Chloe. “Detective? You came back?” he asked in wonderment, his gaze drinking in every detail of her appearance. This wasn’t the sleepy penitent who had given herself freely to the Devil; this was the trained police detective placing herself squarely between him and danger. She was real and here, and she was very angry.

“Of course, I came back,” she snapped, her brilliant blue eyes sparking with temper. “But it looks like it wasn’t necessary after all. It didn’t take you long to find a replacement, Lucifer. I hope she gives you everything you desire.”

She began to reach for his mark glowing crimson beneath her tight tee shirt, but he lunged at her to grasp her hand. The gun in her right never waivered from its target, and Lucifer held her left wrist captive in his grip. “Don’t leave, Detective,” his command was half order and half plea. “It’s not what you think.”

Chloe dragged her gaze away from the demon in her disguise and finally looked his way. “Are you going to tell me you didn’t know it wasn’t me? If you tell me that, Lucifer, I will stay, because you never lie to me.”

Lucifer closed his eyes and cursed silently. This was not how he pictured their next meeting at all. If he told her the truth, she would leave, and who knows if or when she would return? Still, he had promised her that he would no longer hide. He had no choice but to explain and hope she didn’t run away again. “I knew it wasn’t you, Detective, but I wanted it to be,” he confessed loud enough for both of them to hear. “This is the demoness Legion,” he indicated the Chloe dressed only in his shirt. “She was angry that I refused her advances, so she used her power against me. I should have pushed her away, but I wanted you too much to resist.”

Apparently done with being ignored, Legion boldly approached them until the muzzle of Chloe’s gun was level with her forehead. “This human is the reason you were away for so long?” the demoness said with her borrowed voice. “What is so special about this one that you would abandon your host? What does she offer you that I cannot give?”

He saw the Detective’s hands begin to tremble, and he could not allow the demoness to sense weakness. With hard, cold cruelty, he answered, “Everything, because you are not her. Now leave, or I will erase you like the others.”

Her form shifted and blurred until she resumed her preferred demoness form of shadow and smoke. Her voice was full of sinister whispers and hisses as she spat, “You swore before the host that you would never mark another, yet this human who has not been Judged wears your name over her heart. You have chosen your consort, my King, but you did not choose one of your own subjects. It will not be borne, Lucifer. She is too weak and—"

Chloe’s finger tightened on the trigger, and Lucifer’s temper exploded. Legion was ruining everything, and she had disobeyed his commands repeatedly. She needed to be punished. With a savage snarl, his full devil form appeared, and he flared his hooked bat’s wings wide enough to shield the Detective from seeing what he was about to do. He reached his clawed hand into the swirling shadows and found her throat with his deadly claws. He squeezed until he felt the sharp tips puncture her skin and felt the sizzle of her blood coating his hand. “You do not question me, demon,” he growled, his voice sonorous and deep. “She bears my mark on her soul, and she is _mine_. Any who dare come near her will suffer.”

Without waiting for acknowledgment, he threw her through the air until she collided with the solid door and fell to the floor with a cry of pain. Legion did not hesitate this time to scramble to her feet and claw her way out the door to make her escape, and Lucifer had to hold himself back from chasing her, catching her, and killing her on the spot. Even after she was gone and he was alone with the real Chloe, he stared at the closed door, his breaths blowing harshly with anger, as his rage spiraled dangerously out of control. He took a step toward the door, but his progress was arrested by the delicate fingers gripping his arm.

“Lucifer, stop,” she ordered him softly. “She’s gone, and I don’t think she’ll be back anytime soon. You got your point across loud and clear, okay? Just let it go.”

His breaths slowed down and his fists unclenched, his wrath fading and morphing beneath her touch. Legion was forgotten, and he turned his focus to her instead. With only a thought, he shed his devil form and resumed his human one as he swept her up into his arms and kissed her with all the pent-up yearning and lust that had been building for her over the past several years. He overwhelmed her with his passion, and he heard her gun fall to the floor as she worked her hands beneath the open halves of his shirt and met his passion with her own. This was what he had been waiting for; Chloe Decker in his arms and ready to receive him.

His haze of lust was interrupted as Chloe’s hands pushed against his chest instead of clutching him closer. “Lucifer, wait! We should talk first. We need to make plans,” she moaned, tilting her head so he had more access to her neck.

He ignored her suggestion, choosing instead to lick and suck purple marks into her flawless, pale skin. “Unless you wish to talk about how you want me to fuck you in explicit detail, I have no desire to stop what I’m doing,” he rasped into the hollow beneath her ear. “I have waited an eternity to touch you. I’m done talking.”

He didn’t allow her to protest, even if she wanted to, and he hastily tugged her shirt over her head and tossed it to the side. He scowled at the sight of her breasts covered from his gaze by a serviceable bra, and he ripped it down the middle with no discernable effort. “Lucifer!” she exclaimed, shock lending volume to her voice and scarlet to her cheeks. “What has gotten into you?”

Grabbing her hips roughly, he pressed his painfully swollen cock into her softness and walked her backward until she was trapped between him and the wall. Her hands automatically braced themselves against his muscled pecs, and she gasped as he thrust his hips against her. “You, Detective. You are what has gotten into me, and I can think of nothing else but getting into you.”

Chloe’s knees buckled, but his hold on her was strong. A ragged moan ripped from her throat as Lucifer homed in on her breasts, licking and biting and suckling, and she buried her fingers into his hair to hold him to her. He didn’t want to give her the chance to think or speak; he needed her too badly to wait even one more minute before being inside her. They could talk after, but not before.

“Lucifer,” she panted his name, her hips arching into him. “We need to talk!”

He growled low in his throat as his progress was arrested by the skin-tight denim encasing his prize. “Your last outfit was much more accommodating, Detective,” he replied darkly.

Impatiently, he unfastened her jeans and shoved them down her legs, kissing and sucking at the skin revealed along his path until he was on his knees before her. Even with her legs trembling, she kicked and struggled out of her sensible sneakers and wadded up denim, and she tugged on his hair to guide his mouth to her satin-covered pussy. He followed her directions willingly, and he buried his nose into the soaked fabric that stood between him and his desire. Closing his eyes, he breathed deep of her scent and categorized it for memory. Distilled sex and floral soap filled his lungs, and his mouth flooded with saliva. She smelled like _his_.

Fisting his hand in the scrap of silk, he twisted and yanked. With a satisfying _riiiip_ , her panties were gone, and so was the last obstacle. He couldn’t resist the proximity of her flushed pussy; he had to have at least one taste. There was no time for teasing, so he dove straight in and lapped at the swollen lips and stole the flavor of her arousal straight from the source. Her fingernails were digging furrows in his scalp as she rode his tongue, but he didn’t even feel it. He was too busy gorging himself to care.

Her grip on his hair tightened, holding him in place as she chased her completion. “This is...this is...ah!...this is not why I came here,” she protested, even as her body convulsed with the first shockwave of orgasm.

Lucifer hummed with approval against her pulsing clit before licking and biting his way back up her stomach, over her breasts, and along her neck until was back on his feet once more. He claimed her mouth for a dirty, sloppy kiss, but his hands were busy undoing his button and lowering his zipper to free his rigid cock. He didn’t bother disrobing or even pushing his pants over his ass; he had everything he needed at the ready. Placing his hands around her ribs, he lifted her without effort and braced her back against the wall. He rocked his hard cock against her abdomen as he kissed her senseless.

He broke from her lips to breathe, “Wrap your legs around my waist and lose control with me, Detective.” He knew he wasn’t playing fair by imbuing his command with celestial power, but there was no hidden trick or plot for revenge as there had been when he’d first tempted Eve with the fruit. His only motive was being joined with her.

She did not resist him. Her long, pale legs bracketed his waist and she hooked her ankles at the base of his spine, pulling him closer to the hot, wet center of her. A needy moan echoed from her throat, and she grasped his jaws between her hands and said breathily, “Lucifer, shut up and fuck me,” and kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Dudes, I am so sorry to leave off right when it's getting good, but I promise I am already writing feverishly on the next chapter! I have the next two days off, and not counting a birthday party and cleaning, I will be right here working on the next chapter. Thank you again to all the amazingly kind and enthusiastic readers who left a comment and/or kudos. You guys give me wings.***


	5. Chloe

Chloe had never been swept away so quickly and thoroughly in her life. Even though she had enjoyed sex in the past, it had never made her forget everything else like it did with Lucifer. She was quite aware of the fact that she had control issues—Dan had been fond of reminding her frequently during their marriage—and her drive to maintain that control had paid off in her career. In her private life, though, it hadn’t worked out so well for her, especially in in her love life. No matter how desired her partner had been, she had never been able to fully let go and be present in the moment, even if she did manage to orgasm a few times. Something inside of her always held back and shielded her most intimate reactions, never completely trusting her partner to not only get her to the peak, but to catch her when she fell from it.

Until Lucifer.

It couldn’t just be love. She had loved Dan, enough to create a perfect daughter with him, but even he had never been able to inspire the kind of passion in her that Lucifer did with only a kiss. He made her feel bravely feminine and gave her the courage to let go of her prized control and revel in the primal throes of mating. She had tried to slow things down, tried to insist they talk, but the Devil would not be denied. He overcame her weak protests easily until she could no longer remember the reasons why for them. Chloe was overwhelmed with his desire for her, and all she could do was hang on to him and ride the waves of ecstasy he unleashed within her.  

He released her from his drugging kiss, and Chloe heard his voice twisting and twining about her soul as he breathed, “Wrap your legs around my waist and lose control with me, Detective.”

The last thread of her control melted away, and she wanted nothing more in the world than to give in to his command. “Lucifer, shut up and fuck me,” her true self responded with her own command.

His hard, thick cock found her swollen entrance, and he drove himself inside of her with one powerful thrust. He bottomed out deep inside her, and Chloe threw her head back with a wail as he ground his hips until he reached the very end pressed against her cervix. The stretch from his length and girth was intense, and fire licked from every nerve ending that screamed mixed signals of bliss and pain, but she wanted more. He was splitting her open with his cock, but it wasn’t enough. She needed him to take her, fuck her, and push her over that peak where freedom awaited her. She needed him to fly with her.

Lucifer pressed her harder to the wall, pinning her with his cock and his hands, and he groaned harshly into her ear. His breath washed over her cheek, the scent of liquor and cigarette smoke teasing her senses, and rasped harshly, “I have done this a million times and in a million different ways, but it has never felt like this.” He slid his cock back slowly before plunging back in with force. “What are you doing to me, Detective?”

She couldn’t formulate a reply, had no reserve thoughts remaining to even try. All she could do was focus on the push and pull of his shaft driving her relentlessly toward release. His strokes were rough and deep, and each one reverberated through her body with electric shocks of pleasure. Her arms wound around his shoulders, and she searched for his wings with her fingertips, but found only scars, and she dug her fingernails in for purchase as his hips smacked against her ass with each thrust. “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, lost in the rhythm and the music of their joining. “Harder, Lucifer! More!” she cried, letting her knees fall open to take the last centimeter of him.

He took full advantage of her offering. His ass muscles flexed and released beneath her heels with each rolling thrust of his cock, and she could feel the scratch of his clothes against her most sensitive places. She was literally stripped bare down to her soul for Lucifer, but she did not feel naked with him. She felt wanted and desired, cherished and protected. He gave her the freedom to let go of her fears and shame, and she repaid him with her trust.

“There are so many things I want to do to you, Detective,” he murmured darkly as he nipped and licked along the arch of her neck. As he spoke, he continued to fuck her with relentless, maddening strength that made tears of desperation well in her eyes. “I want to ruin you for anyone else. No one else will ever take my rightful place between your legs. Promise me, Detective.”

Chloe sobbed as his words and his body wove invisible bonds between their souls that tied them together as one. She gave herself to him without hesitation or regret, and she found salvation in his possession. The pressure inside of her swelled to an unbearable crescendo, and as she cried out, “Only you, Lucifer!”, her body detonated. Her eyes went dark, her ears went deaf, and the only thing she could do was wail for relief as she was battered with wave upon wave of devastating ecstasy.

Her release only spurred him on to fuck her harder and faster. Curse words and grunts rumbled from his chest as he pounded into her body without mercy until he stiffened with a low roar and spilled himself inside her. Chloe barely had the strength to cling to him while he shuddered and climaxed and deposited his seed. She felt wrung out and limp, and she lay her head on his shoulder and trusted him to support her weight. Even though they had both found their completion, Lucifer continued to piston his still-hard cock lazily in and out of her pussy as he whispered confessions of love and seductive promises against her hair.

He pressed a tender kiss to her head, held her close to his chest, and said softly, “We shouldn’t remain here. News of your existence and presence here has doubtless spread swiftly thanks to Legion, and I do not wish to kill any brave enough to see for themselves. You will be safe in my rooms.”

Before Chloe could formulate a reply, Lucifer banded her to his chest with his arms, and began to walk confidently toward the door with her. “Lucifer! Put me down and let me get dressed first!” she demanded, her voice rising in panic.

With every step, his hard cock slid in and out of her core on the glide of his seed, and she shivered with decadent shame as she imagined gawking demons watching their king fuck her as he strode through his palace. His arms were like iron bands around her, and she had no choice but to cling to him with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

“I can hide you from prying eyes better this way,” he replied, pausing to press a tender kiss to her lips. “Besides, if I allow you to put on your clothes, I can’t do this.” His hips flexed, sliding his thick cock through the swollen, slippery tissues of her sex.

Chloe gasped, and her body flushed with embarrassment and lust. She buried her face against his neck and gave herself over to the power of his possession, floating on the softly building waves of arousal that washed over her skin and trusted him to shield her. As if he were waiting for that thought, his shoulders flexed beneath her hands, and a loud _whoosh_ rent the air as his wings burst forth from his back. The soft, silky texture of feathers caressed along her skin as he brought his angel wings forward to wrap around her body like a cloak. Darkness enveloped her, and she was struck speechless as each feather brushed against her with divine bliss that soothed and healed every part of her.

Having secured his prize, Lucifer strode with purposeful steps, pausing only long enough to kick the door open before continuing their journey. With each step, she moaned into his neck as his shaft continued to torment her, and when he reached the stairs, she thought she would explode as he took them two at a time in his haste to reach their destination. She had no idea how long it took them to reach his private rooms, but by the time they arrived, she was near frantic with the need to come.

Distantly, she heard a door slam closed behind them, but she was too far gone to care. With a few more steps, Lucifer came to a stop and withdrew his wings, and Chloe cried out at their loss. Flickering candlelight danced behind her closed eyes and brought her head up to look around. They were back in his room, and Lucifer’s wings were gone, but she forgot about them as he laid her carefully down on the bed without parting from her. He stood above her, his cock still buried deep in her body, and Chloe had never felt so beautiful and desired in her life as she did in that moment.

She had no words, no voice to explain the feelings crashing through her soul for him, but they weren’t necessary in the end. Lucifer hooked her knees over his forearms, dragged her ass to the edge of the bed for better access, and drove his cock to the very end of her. A harsh groan welled up from his throat, and he said, “I could stay buried inside of you for days and never tire, Detective. You were made for me, made for _this_.”

Goosebumps broke across her skin as he pushed and pulled himself in and out of her needy body with achingly slow strokes. His fire and passion had tempered into a seductive dance that had her clutching the silk sheets in her fists and rising to meet each stroke. He freed his right hand to explore her supine curves as he fucked her, and she gasped when his fingers slid over her abdomen, across her sensitive clit, and beyond to trace and feel where their bodies were joined. “You feel it, don’t you? The way your cunt molds to me and draws me in deeper, the way you squeeze me and milk me of my seed...,” his eyes flashed crimson for a split second as he teased along her stretched opening with the pad of his thumb, “Your body was created to be joined to mine, a divine gift from my father for his most disloyal son.”

“Lucifer, please,” she begged, her clit crying out for his attention. His words, his touch, and his body drove her steadily to an unfamiliar precipice that loomed from terrifying heights, and all she needed to fall over was one touch. “Please!”

His pace did not quicken, and his fingers continued to trace across her lips without ever reaching the heart of her desire. “I know what you need, but not yet,” he forestalled her, his dark eyes fixated on their joining. He changed the angle of his thrusts until his wide crown impacted with a cluster of nerves hiding inside of her. Chloe’s body spasmed as each thrust caused stars to explode behind her eyes and pressure to swell in her abdomen. She had never felt anything like it before, and she absurdly worried that her bladder would release before the mounting pleasure twisting her in knots. Her muscles locked in place, her joints refusing to cooperate, as she chased her elusive end with each thrust of his cock. She both feared and anticipated the power of her impending climax, but all she could do was let go and allow him to take her there.

One hand gripped her right hipbone, and the one between her legs skipped past her clit to massage the flesh just above her mound. She could feel his cockhead striking her channel beneath his fingertips, and the added pressure of their weight sent her soaring. His strokes grew faster and harder, his fingers heavier and stronger, and Chloe flew apart. Her vision turned brilliant white, her heart stopped beating, and her mind was ripped from its moorings as she ascended to the very gates of the Silver City. She hung suspended for what felt like an eternity basking in the pure, ethereal joy of the sight of the gleaming silver gates before she crashed back down into her body with a wail of loss that turned into a cry of surprise as her muscles contracted with pain and released with pure bliss over and over again. Tears poured from her eyes and Lucifer was there to kiss them away and whisper endearments in her ear as he chased his own completion. She clutched him to her chest and held him tight as he thrust to the very end of her and stiffened in her arms with a muffled shout. His back muscles trembled beneath her hands, his breaths blew hot against her ear, and his come poured out of her like a fountain.

Her legs felt numb, but the rest of her had never felt so alive. Her heart was full of love and gratitude for the man pinning her to the bed with his hips and chest. Lucifer had bestowed her with a gift that she could never repay. He had given her a glimpse of heaven itself, and she had nothing that compared to give him in return. All she could give him was her heart.

Lucifer was still catching his breath, and his weight was pushing her into the mattress, but Chloe didn’t mind. Her hands soothed along his sides, explored the ridges of his spine, and caressed the rough scars where his wings hid. “Thank you, Lucifer,” she breathed, turning her face to kiss his cheek. “Just...thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Here's a bit of emotional porn to get you through the day! To my friends in the States, Happy Memorial Day! I hope you are spending your day off doing whatever makes you happy. For me, that is writing the next chapter after a quick break to clean my messy house. To my friends everywhere else in the world, I hope your Monday is going as well as can be expected. I wish you an easy day at work or at home surrounded by people that don't make you want to choke them. I will be back soon, friends! I am very excited about the plot...and all the delicious UDS, too!***


	6. Chloe

His throaty chuckle vibrated through her breasts, causing them to tingle and tighten into hard buds. “I should be the one thanking you, Detective,” he replied, lifting his head until he could make eye contact. His eyes glittered with reflected candlelight and his sexy lips were quirked in the beginnings of a smile. “I believe the bloody thing is finally going down. I’ve been hard as a rock for you since you left.”

With a moan of regret, Lucifer withdrew his softening cock and slowly gained his feet. Chloe felt cold and bereft as his heat faded from her skin, and embarrassment flushed across her body as the air cooled the dripping skin of her thighs and the soaked sheets beneath her. She felt utterly debauched and depraved with her legs splayed open, everything laid bare for him, with his come and her arousal still seeping from her channel. She knew she should feel ashamed for her wantonness, but the only thing she felt was free. Free to express her innermost desires, free to allow herself to do what feels good instead of blindly following what she’d been taught was right. If this was what it felt like to sin with the Devil, she would gladly burn if it meant she was with him.

Lucifer bent down to press a soft, clinging kiss to her lips before he straightened once more. “Don’t move a muscle, love. I’ll be right back.”

She watched with lazy appreciation as he tucked his still-impressive cock back into his pants and fastened them closed before he turned to walk away. She could hear his footsteps retreating before the sound of running water echoed through the cavernous suite, but she was content to wait for his return. When he came back a few moments later, he was gloriously naked, and she allowed herself the opportunity to ogle his perfection. His chest and abdomen were cut in clean lines that delineated each muscle, and her fingers itched to trace the deep vee of his Adonis belt that pointed the way to his cock. He was so handsome and irresistible, and he was all hers.

Without any effort at all, Lucifer lifted her against his chest, and she looped her arms around his neck as he carried her across the room. She could hear the sound of running water getting louder as they moved into a hidden alcove, and curiosity finally forced her to speak. “Where are we going?”

The question was answered as he stepped through a doorway into a spacious bathroom, but he answered her anyway. “To take a bath together,” he announced, heading toward a massive, sunken tub that could easily host a dozen people.

Steam radiated from the surface of the dark water, and the scent of sandalwood and citrus tickled her nose. The water poured from multiple faucets, rapidly filling the deep pool, and he stepped down into its depths without hesitation. Chloe’s aching body cried out for the relief of the moist heat that brought beads of perspiration to her bare skin, and she moaned in appreciation as he lowered them both into the scented bath. Never letting her go, he sat on a wide, built-in ledge, and the water rose up her body until it kissed the softly glowing mark of his name on her left breast. Lucifer shifted her buoyant weight until her back was plastered along his chest and her ass was flush against his pelvis, and she lay her head back on his shoulder as she allowed the heated water to soothe the sore muscles and tender tissues of her sex.

“Oh, my god, that feels so good,” she hummed, closing her eyes and allowing her body to float weightless in his arms.

Lucifer’s hold on her loosened, but he did not let her get away. He ran his big hands across the plains of her stomach, over her sensitive breasts, and back down again with slow, possessive self-assurance. “Was I too rough on you, Detective?” he asked, real concern coloring his tone. “It is not my desire to cause you pain.”

She sighed dreamily in pure contentment as every muscle and tendon in her body relaxed. Her lips turned up at the corners with a happy smile. “No, you were perfect,” she murmured, rolling her head on his shoulder. “I will feel you for days.”

A low, satisfied rumbling emitted from his chest as he reached out a hand to grasp a bar of soap from a nearby basket. He brought the bar beneath the water and began to run it across every valley and slope of her body. He buried his nose in the hollow behind her ear and rumbled, “Good. I want you to remember me when...when I cannot be with you.”

She knew he was thinking about her leaving him, and it reminded her of the purpose for her visit. “I wouldn’t need reminding if you came back with me,” she replied, arching her hips into the gentle sweeps of the soap running across her abdomen.

His hand stilled between her thighs for a long moment before he continued his mission to cleanse her. “I can’t leave, Detective, you know that. Hell must have a ruler, and only an angel will do. And since I so foolishly marked my host with a permanent key, I am the only one who can prevent them from using it to cross over to the earthly plane. I can’t risk the demons escaping again.”

Chloe spun around in arms to straddle his lap, and he did not break stride as he proceeded to run the soap across her back and ass. Reaching out with a dripping hand, she pushed aside the dark curl of hair that had fallen across his forehead and searched his dark gaze for the charming flirt she’d first fallen for but found only darkness. “There must be some other way that you can come back with me. You’re miserable here, Lucifer.”

He raised a dark eyebrow, and Chloe gasped as he ran the bar of soap straight down the crack of her ass, paying special attention to the puckered opening. “Only when you aren’t here,” he deflected neatly, distracting her by replacing the soap with his fingers.

A dark thrill shivered through her body as his middle finger massaged the rim of tight muscle on the glide of the slippery soap, and her voice quivered as she doggedly pressed her point. “Lucifer, it’s not safe for me to be here. My physical body is doubly vulnerable every time my soul travels here. Maze told me that whatever happens to one happens to the other. What if my house catches on fire while my soul is here with you? What will happen to my body on earth if my soul is damaged here?”

Lucifer’s blunt fingertip pushed past the resistance of her opening, and a hot flash swept over her followed by cold chills as his finger twisted and pressed inside her. “Nothing will happen to you here, Detective. I will not allow it. You are safe with me.”

Chloe gasped as his finger pressed deeper, and her fingernails curled into his shoulders. He was doing his best to distract her, but she refused to drop the subject. “That’s not the point. I need you back on earth with me. I miss you; we all miss you, and I know you miss us, too. Besides, once I go back to work, I won’t be able to visit you as often, and Maze is going to get tired of babysitting my body while I’m here.”

Apparently convinced that he would not succeed in sidetracking her, he withdrew his finger from her ass and resumed running the spicy, citrus soap across her body. “You have Maze watching you right now? Detective, I had no idea you were into exhibitionism. Shall we give her another show?” he asked, leaning in to capture a puckered nipple with his mouth. He sucked and nibbled on the tender bud until she hissed through her teeth.

With reluctant exasperation, she gripped his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. “Lucifer, stop avoiding the subject. There has to be a way that you can come back with me. There is always a way. Help me understand so we can figure it out together.”

His gorgeous eyes narrowed with temper, and he lifted her from his lap to place her on the ledge next to him. He stood to his feet and turned his back to her. With fast, jerky movements, he began to run the bar of soap over his own skin, neatly evading her gaze. “There is nothing to understand. If I leave, there is no one to stop the demons from coming through the gate right behind me. This time, they will be smarter and more difficult to find until it’s too late.”

Chloe wrinkled her eyebrows in thought as she idly admired the rounded curve of his ass peeking at from her from below the steaming water. “Okay, I get that. There is no other angel to take your place, so we need to figure out how to prevent the demons from possessing humans on earth.”

Lucifer threw the soap across the room in a fit of temper, and he turned to face her with a scowl. “Don’t you think I’ve tried, Detective? I have spent over two thousand years trying everything I could think of to remove or inactivate my mark, and nothing has worked. I was young and foolish when I created the lock and key to the gates, and I have had an eternity to regret it.”

Something he’d just said sparked a thought in the hazy, relaxed cortex of her mind, and she sat up straight as she chased it down to inspect it. “Lock and key...lock and key...,” she repeated over and over, lost in thought. “Lucifer, is there an actual lock on the gates?”

He shot her a confused look, but he humored her anyway. “Of course there is, Detective. What good is a key without a lock?”

She couldn’t think with the steaming water lulling her to relax, so she rose to her feet and carefully exited the tub. She found a stack of fluffy black towels nearby and snatched one off the pile. “Okay, tell me about this lock. What is it? How does it work?” she demanded, vigorously rubbing her water-logged body with the towel.

Lucifer looked baffled at her line of questioning as he stepped out of the sunken tub and reached for his own towel. “I won’t bore you with all the dull details. Suffice to say, it is simply a portal of sorts. The gates recognize my mark and open to allow their consciousness, or soul in your case, into Hell or into the human realm.”

Chloe wrapped the towel tightly around her torso and tucked the corner beneath her armpit out of long practice. Even though her mind was whirling with possibilities, she still paused to appreciate the show Lucifer put on by drying himself. “Which did you create first? The lock or the key?”

“The lock,” he replied shortly.

She could tell he was losing patience with their discussion, especially when he dropped his towel and began to stalk toward her with intent. Chloe knew that if he touched her again, she would forget everything but the feel of his body against hers, but she couldn’t allow him to sabotage his chance at freedom. She avoided his reaching hands and darted past him headed back to his room. She knew he would follow her, so called back over her shoulder, “Focus, Lucifer! Have you ever tried changing the lock?”

His crisp English accent sounded pissy from close behind her as he replied, “I have tried breaking it, jamming it, blowing it up, covering it, blocking it, melting it, freezing it, smashing it, and ramming it. Nothing I’ve tried will destroy the lock, Detective. I’ve tried it all.”

They arrived back in his bedroom, and Cloe cast her eyes around the shadows for something to wear. She spied his discarded shirt from earlier and gratefully shrugged it over her shoulders after dropping her towel to the floor. “I didn’t ask you if you’ve tried to destroy the lock. I asked you if you’ve tried to change it.”

Lucifer huffed with impatience as he snatched his pants from the floor and stepped into them with ill-disguised temper. “What’s the difference?” he snapped. “Nothing I do has any affect. The demons will still be able to travel through the gates.”

Chloe closed her eyes and rubbed her temples as a headache began to form behind her eyes. Linda had told her to stop thinking like a human and expecting human results, but being human was all she knew. Chloe was too practical and analytical to grasp the concepts of celestial beings and mystical powers. She had no idea how any of this worked, but she would stop trying to find a solution. For both their sake.

“There’s a huge difference, Lucifer,” she snapped, her own temper beginning to flare at his obstinance. “Have you tried changing the lock so that anyone wearing your mark ends up somewhere else?”

He stared at her as if she were crazy. “Where else could I send them to, Detective?” he demanded. “The only two realms I have access to are here and earth.”

Chloe shook her head, warming to the idea. “That’s not true. You transported my consciousness straight to the gates of the Silver City just a little while ago in your bed.”

The color drained from his flushed cheeks and he stumbled his way into sitting on the bed. “That’s nothing to joke about, Detective. I have not seen those gates since I was exiled from my home forever.”

Chloe’s heart squeezed at the desolation she heard in his tone, and she yearned to comfort him, but there would be time enough for that later if her plan worked. “I would never joke about gleaming silver gates that glowed so brilliantly with pure joy, or the sound of angelic choruses raised in song.” She saw the moment that he believed her, but she still drove her point home. “I could have never reached them on my own. You sent me there, Lucifer. You have the ability to reach the gates, even if you can’t walk through them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***The plot thickens, friends! I am so excited to start the next chapter! The action will start to heat up, and I am soooo looking forward to it! Thank you to everyone for your kindness and support. I will be back very soon with another chapter! Peace, good vibes, and good smoke to all y'all!***


	7. Lucifer

Lucifer was absolutely floored. How had he managed to send to her to the very gates of the Silver City? Granted, he logically knew he could fly there on his own at anytime, but he’d never given in to the temptation to look upon the paradise he could never experience again. Had he unwittingly sent Chloe there? Could he do it again, and this time on purpose?

“Detective,” he said her name slowly as his lust-fogged brain began working once more, “Are you proposing that I unleash the armies of Hell on the Silver City? If you’ve ever attended Sunday School, you would know that didn’t end well for me the first go around.”

Chloe considered the idea for a moment before shaking her head firmly. “No, that’s not what I’m saying, Lucifer. You wouldn’t be leading a rebellion this time. You would be in L.A. with me living your life with true freedom for the first time. If the demons decide to break your laws and use the mark, they will find themselves at your father’s front door instead of possessing a human corpse. What happens from there is neither your fault nor your concern. He is the one that created this place and its habitants; let Him deal with it.”

It seemed so simple a solution, but could it actually work? He’d never even considered the idea of tweaking the lock instead of destroying it, but if he were to succeed, it could very likely solve his problem while also allowing him to metaphorically give Dear Old Dad the finger. He imagined the expressions on the faces of his siblings should any demon suddenly appear before the silver gates, and he couldn’t hold back the sardonic chuckle that rippled from his throat. “Oh, that’s bloody brilliant,” he announced, getting excited about the possibilities. “That would keep the demon horde in check while also keeping my brothers and sisters too busy defending the gates to nose around in my business. Win-win, right? Well done, Detective!”

Chloe’s pale cheeks flushed with his praise, and it brought his own blood racing in the opposite direction. How had he never noticed that she bloomed under sincere approval? He would be more than willing to oblige her; it was no punishment to make her happy. He could easily imagine her on her knees before him, sucking his hard cock, as he praised her for a job well done. There was so much to learn about her, so much to explore. If he could pull this off, they need never be separated again, and he could spend all his time with her ferreting out her secrets.

Chloe deflected his compliment with a flick of her wrist and wry twist of her lips. “IF it works, and that’s a big if, that means that you can come back home. You can be free to be whoever you want whether it’s the Devil, an angel, a human, or a combination of all three. It will finally be your choice to live your life on your own terms.”

Lucifer was hard as a rock as her words washed over him with thrilling desire. He wanted freedom from the shackles that bound him to this bloody throne, this miserable place where there was no music or dancing. He wanted Chloe in his bed naked every night and solving murders by his side every day. The Detective was right; L.A. was his home now, because that was where she lived. Nowhere else in heaven or hell or in between had ever felt right to him until the day he met her for the first time. Because of her, Lucifer had a real family for the very first time. True, his family was an odd mixture of humans, demon, angel, and newborn nephilim, but they were all his. And he wanted them back.

Without thought, he launched himself from the bed and swooped her up in his arms. She shrieked with surprised laughter as he spun her around in circles before claiming her mouth for a brief, dirty kiss. He released her bruised lips and began walking them toward his bed as he said, “It will work, Detective. Sometimes you just have to have faith.”

She did not protest this time as he lowered them to the bed. Settling his hips between her thighs felt like coming home, and he never wanted to leave it again. “I do have faith, Lucifer,” she replied softly, her delicate fingers dancing across his cheek. “I have faith in you.”

Power unlike anything he’d experienced before resonated through his body with her words. Of their own volition, his angel wings burst from his shoulder blades and extended to their full wingspan. The feathers glowed with an ethereal light, and Lucifer was flooded with the celestial power of belief, and it gave him the knowledge and confidence he needed to get it done. He was going home today...with her.

Her pale blue eyes were wide with awe and her hand stretched out to touch the divine silk of his feathers. His voice was low and melodious when he recited, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

 Her breath caught in her throat, and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as she looked upon him in all his former angelic glory. “Lucifer,” she breathed, “You’re beautiful.”

He leaned in to press gentle, clinging kisses to her lips. “Only because you believe it to be so, Detective.”

Her arms wound around his neck, and she pulled him flush against her body as she deepened their kiss. They explored each other’s mouths without urgency, each of them content to give and receive their passion leisurely, neither of them in a hurry to reach a destination. Their hands trailed across bare skin, sifted through silky hair, and grazed over beaded nipples as they discovered each other all over again. This was heaven to him, tasting her lips and feeling her body molded to his own, and he was in no hurry for it to end.

He forgot for just a moment where he was.

 _BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!_ echoed throughout his chambers, startling them out of their intimate moment.

 _“My Lord!”_ a deep, familiar voice called out to him from behind the barred door. _“My Lord, you are needed! A rebellion is brewing, and there is a host of demons storming the palace!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I know this is a short chapter and the good stuff got interrupted, but I promised you action! No worries, I am already working on the next chapter. Dudes, I am so freaking PUMPED about this story! You guys are rocking my world with your support and enthusiasm. It's only fair if I try to rock yours back! See you very soon!***


	8. Lucifer

“Dad damn it all to Hell!” he cursed, fury welling up in his gut. With an angry _snap_ , his wings retracted. He gained his feet, leaving Chloe behind on the bed befuddled, and stormed across the room toward the door. “I’m going to end every last one of them.”

“Lucifer, what’s going on?” Chloe asked, her voice trembling as she scrambled to her feet to follow behind him.

Never breaking stride, he called over his shoulder, “That is my general, Valac. Stay where you are, Detective. I will handle this interruption swiftly and be back to resume where we left off in no time.”

As usual, she refused to listen to him and caught up to him easily. “That didn’t sound like a minor interruption,” she hissed as they paused by the locked bedroom door. “It sounds like an invasion!”

He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked her directly in the eyes. “This isn’t the first time a handful of malcontents has attempted to riot. Don’t worry, Detective. I can handle this, but perhaps it would be best for you to return to your human body out of an abundance of caution.”

He hadn’t wanted to say it, and he really didn’t want her to leave without him, but he would not risk her getting hurt or being exposed to the horrors and ugliness of his so-called kingdom. He’d promised to protect her, and keeping that promise was more important than his selfish desire to keep her close. He wouldn’t risk her safety when they were so close to achieving his freedom.

The Detective, however, was not willing to budge. “I’m not leaving here without you, Lucifer. Go, handle the rebellion, and return to me so that we can go home together.”

His chest swelled with unfamiliar emotion, and he leaned down to press a firm kiss to her lips. “I shall be back shortly. Lock the door behind me, and do not open it for anyone other than me,” he advised her, searching her gaze for understanding.

She nodded her head and stepped behind the door as Lucifer slid outside and closed it swiftly behind him. He hesitated only long enough to hear the heavy lock engage before he transformed into his full devil form and strode down the halls in search of his general. He had expected Valac to be waiting for him to pass along more information, but the halls were deserted. He didn’t bother walking down the steps, and instead spread his bat wings and glided to the first floor in his haste.

His confusion began to mount as he noted his servants going about their tasks like normal with no hint of any trouble to disturb them. He searched room from room, ignoring the timid greetings from his subjects, but he heard no screams, breaking of glass, or any other sounds that would indicate an impending riot. With his anger and impatience mounting, he threw open the front doors of his palace and finally found his general running drills with his troops on the lawn.

“Valac!” he boomed, his voice ringing across the landscape. “What is the meaning of this?”

The male demon, dressed in full battle gear, dismissed his troops and approached him warily. He came to a stop just out of reach and pounded his fist to his heart. “My King,” he greeted him with head bowed. “How may I serve you?”

“Is this some sort of joke, Valac?” Lucifer demanded coldly. “If so, I am not laughing.”

The demon looked genuinely puzzled by his king’s words, but he was not confused about his apparent foul mood. “Apologies, my lord, but I am at a loss. Tell me how I have offended you, and I will submit to an appropriate punishment.”

A sick curl of dread unfurled in his stomach, and a wave of dizziness made him break out in a cold sweat. “You just beat on my door moments ago and said we were under attack by a rebellion,” he reminded him. When Valac only raised his eyebrows and looked around at the relatively peaceful setting in disbelief, Lucifer asked desperately, “Didn’t you?”

“No, my lord,” the serious, scary demon replied with sincere confidence. “You gave the order that you were not to be disturbed, and there has been no whisper of a rebellion since your glorious return.”

If Valac was telling the truth, and Lucifer had no reason to doubt him, then that meant that someone had deliberately lured him away from his room. “Legion,” Lucifer choked as realization washed over him. Without waiting to explain to his general, he flexed his devil wings and shot into the sky. It seemed to take him eons to travel the short distance to his balcony, and each flap of his wings felt like swimming through molasses. The Detective was in trouble, and he had promised to protect her, but he’d turned around and walked directly into a trap.

His landing was not smooth when his bare feet touched the slate stone of his veranda, but he gave no thought to grace as he ran to the double doors and flung them wide to gain entrance to his rooms. Everything was just as he’d left it; the bed was rumpled, damp towels scattered across the floor, and a trail of water led to the hidden bathroom. The only thing missing was her.

“Detective?” he called out, his tone rising as he rushed into his room. There was no answer from her, but he didn’t expect one. He felt her absence like a razor to his flesh. His suspicions were confirmed when he spied his bedroom door unlocked and standing open, and no Chloe in sight. When he reached his bedroom door, he spied no one else in the corridor.

His detective was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Another short chapter, but no worries! I am hard at work on the next one! Chloe is up next....
> 
> Friends, you have blown me away with your enthusiasm and kindness! I am so happy you guys are enjoying this journey with me. I am having a blast, and it's all because of you! Biggest of love to y'all! Be back very soon!***


	9. Chloe

Chloe bolted the door behind Lucifer and cursed herself for being caught in the middle of a demon uprising with no underwear. Even with his dress shirt hanging down to mid-thigh, she still felt naked and vulnerable, and that was a little too close to her own personal Hell for comfort. She had no idea how long he would be gone, but she needed to be ready to leave, and that meant finding clothes and a weapon.

With her heart pounding furiously in her chest, Chloe darted around his room looking for armor. After hastily pulling open drawers and opening closets, she’d had better luck with the weapons than the clothes. All she found were more dress shirts and pants; nothing with elastic or drawstrings for Lucifer. The only thing she found that would fit her was a small pair of black leather hot pants that were definitely too small for him. She refused to dwell on the identity of the owner as she shimmied them up her legs while she looked over the selection of blades displayed on a shelf close to the bed. Her gaze was caught by a pair of familiar curved knives that looked practically identical to the ones Maze carried. Without thinking twice, Chloe selected the blades and secured them by their clips to the waistband of the embarrassing shorts. It had taken her no more than three minutes to cover her crotch and arm herself.

No sooner than she smoothed the shirt down past her hips than a soft knock on the door startled her. Her adrenaline spiked and fear locked her muscles as her imagination fed her images of gruesome demons thirsty for her blood, but it was all for naught.

“Detective,” Lucifer called to her from the other side of the door. “Open the door. It turns out it was a false alarm, after all.”

Relief made her dizzy as the adrenaline pumping through her veins derailed and crashed. She rushed over to the door on shaky legs, threw back the lock, and opened the door for him. “Thank goodness,” she greeted him, tugging him inside by the hand. “I was worried about you.”

Lucifer pushed the door wide instead of closing it, and when she made to drop his hand, he squeezed hers tighter. “You worried about me? The King of Hell, the most powerful of my father’s host? How foolish and weak you humans are,” he replied, scorn dripping from his lips.

Chloe reared back as if slapped and tried to yank her hand from his, but he squeezed her knuckles until they turned white. “What did you just say to me? Let me go, Lucifer. You’re hurting me.”

A nasty laugh bubbled up from his throat and he backhanded her across her cheek so hard that she saw stars. She collapsed in a puddle at his feet as pain radiated through her face and down to her stomach until she thought she would vomit from it. She didn’t even have the wits to resist him as he hauled her over his shoulder and exited the room, heading at a fast clip down the corridor. His shoulder was wedged in her stomach, and each step sent waves of nausea rolling through her that prevented the darkness of unconsciousness from taking her. All she could do was watch her blood slowly begin to drip from her nose to leave an invisible trail against the black marble floor as she fought to regain her confused senses.

One thing was very clear to her, though. This was not Lucifer, and she had walked right into a trap. “Legion,” she choked, spitting a mouthful of blood down the false angel’s back. “Lucifer will destroy you for this.”

As if waiting for her recognition, the body holding her hostage shifted and changed beneath her until the familiar form of shadows and smoke enveloped her with a sickening blanket of pure evil. She knew with certainty that she was no match for a demon and waiting for Lucifer to rescue her could be deadly. Vainly, Chloe struggled to reach the mark on her chest to take her home, but the shifting shadows that comprised the demon’s form snaked out to capture her wrists and bind them at the base of her spine.

“Stupid mortal,” she hissed, her form picking up speed as they traveled through corridors and rooms. In her demon form, Legion practically floated across the ground on feet of shadow. “Once I’m through with you, he will never know the difference between us.”

Bile raced up Chloe’s throat as Legion ducked out of a side entrance and fled with her into the dark, depressing landscape of Hell. She had no idea where they were going or what the demon would do to her. What did she mean by “he will never know the difference between us”? How would she escape from an ancient being in a different dimension from her own? Even though her head was pounding and fuzzy, her stomach was dangerously close to evacuating, and her hands were literally tied, she had to do something to buy herself time for Lucifer to find her.

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded, having nothing else at her disposal but her words.

The demoness laughed evilly and continued to race with her prize from shadow to shadow, avoiding any watchful eyes. “Somewhere Lucifer will not find you easily. It won’t take me long to mine your secrets, human. Once I have everything I need from you, I will dispose of you and take your place. Together, Lucifer and I will rule over both Hell and earth, and when our armies are combined, we will take the Silver City, too.”

 _Great,_ Chloe thought sardonically, _Not only did I get caught by a dangerous, ancient demon, but she’s certifiably fucking crazy, too._ Out loud, she rasped, “He won’t fall for it, Legion. Lucifer will know that you aren’t me sooner or later, and he will end you.”

The demoness finally slowed as she approached a stark two-story building tucked away from other dwellings off a beaten path. There were no lights illuminating the windows, and it had the appearance of neglect, even more so than the other buildings she’d managed to glimpse from upside down. Completely ignoring everything she’d just said, Legion hissed, “Yes, this will do nicely. He will not think to look for me here for some time.”

Legion flowed around the side of the building and slipped inside through a broken window with Chloe still draped over her shoulder. Cloe cried out as a shard of glass caught her across her shoulder blades, slicing through Lucifer’s shirt and her flesh with equal ease, but the demon did not slow. She could feel the hot blood spreading across her back and his dress shirt grew sticky and clung to her skin.

The cut on her back burned and throbbed throughout her body, but the pain brought clarity back to her chaotic thoughts. She was a trained and decorated detective of the LAPD, and it was past time she’d remembered it. The first rule of hostage negotiation was to get the kidnapper to talk and find out exactly what they wanted. As Legion descended a set of stairs into the inky blackness of the house, she forced herself to ask, “Why wouldn’t Lucifer think to look for you here, Legion? He must know all your hiding places after spending thousands of years with you.”

She didn’t answer right away, and Chloe’s panic began to overcome her training as they arrived at the foot of the stairs. She couldn’t see anything in the pitch dark, and the only thing she could smell was old blood, worn leather, and amber. Even when Legion paused to light a single candle, Chloe still couldn’t make out much of her surroundings, but it didn’t matter in the end. With a rough shove, the demoness tossed Chloe unceremoniously to the ground. Without her hands free to brace herself, she hit the tile floor on her back, and the air was knocked from her chest with a violent burst as her head cracked against the hard tile.

Chloe gasped for air and exhaled it on a pitiful moan, but even though her ears were ringing, she still heard the demoness finally reply, “He won’t think to look here first, because this is the last place he would expect to find me. This is my sister’s home, and it is well known that we are enemies.”

Chloe rolled to her side carefully and swallowed the vomit that tried to escape her throat. She had to keep her talking, keep asking questions, to buy more time. She would not die here like this; she would not go down without a fight. “Won’t your sister...be pissed...that you’re...in her house?” she gasped between ragged breaths.

Legion was suddenly over top of her, looming like a specter of death that reeked of brimstone and decay. “The bitch is gone, hopefully dead. She will never return.”  A ghostly hand materialized from her shadows, and she placed her dark palm against Chloe’s forehead. “Enough talk, human. It is time to reveal your secrets.”

Chloe’s back bowed, and a scream ripped from her lips as her mind broke open beneath Legion’s power. One after another, the demoness plucked and discarded memories of her childhood growing up the daughter of a B-movie star and policeman, scanned and memorized key moments from her teenage years, and spied on her worst moments from her early adulthood. Chloe couldn’t stop screaming as the demon drilled into her mind, and she had never felt so powerless in her life.

Until the moment Legion discovered Trixie.

“A child?” she hissed, obscene delight coloring her tone as she watched the memory of Chloe in labor. “Show me your offspring.”

The instinctive desire to protect her child welled up inside of her, and Chloe pushed back against the demon’s power with a mighty yell. “NO!” Chloe shouted with pure rage lending her strength. “You will never know my daughter. You will not go near her!”

A blinding white light engulfed the demon’s hand where it lay against her forehead, and Legion’s scream of pain shook the foundations of the deserted house. The demoness scrambled away from Chloe, holding her burning hand to her chest and hissed, “I found your secret, Chloe Decker; one that is secret even to yourself. You are Blessed.”

She said the term like a curse, and Chloe had no idea what she meant. Still, she would use any weapon at her disposal if it would keep the demoness from coming closer. “You’re goddamned right I am, and I will light your ass up if you touch me again.”

Legion slowly regained her footing, but she did not step toward her. “This changes nothing, human. I will learn everything about your life, one way or another. Once I am done with you, I will have everything I need to take your place on earth and in Lucifer’s bed. I will corrupt your child, destroy your loved ones, and rule by his side as we lay waste to the human realm and beyond. Too bad you won’t be around to witness it.”

A glint of silver caught Chloe’s eye, and a cold sweat broke over her skin as a gun materialized in the demon’s good hand. Her nausea returned as she recognized the weapon pointed at her head; it was her own police-issued Glock 19, and it was cocked and fully loaded. Legion’s aim did not waiver as she continued conversationally, “I’ve never quite understood the obsession you humans have for firearms, but I must admit that this one is exceptionally well-made and quite handy for this purpose.”

Chloe slowly and painfully maneuvered herself to a seated position and stared down the barrel of her own gun. “Go ahead and shoot me, Legion. I’m not going to tell you shit.”

The demoness smiled, and her rotten, skeletal teeth gleamed in the candlelight. “We’ll just see about that, human.”

She pulled the trigger on the gun, and Chloe braced for impact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Okay, okay, I know! I left you on another cliffhanger, but I promise it won't be for long! I have a lovely, boring weekend ahead of me with nothing to do but write, so there will be a few more chapters over the next two days. 
> 
> Poor Chloe! She is really going through Hell, but have no fear. Help is on its way.***


	10. Chloe

The gun barked and flared in the dim light of the basement, and Chloe shut her eyes instinctively in defense. The impact of the bullet to her flesh was so sudden and still so unexpected that she didn’t even register it at first. It felt like a punch to her left shoulder that sent her sprawling to the ground from its force, and she reeled from the shock of muscles tearing and bones shattering. If there was pain, she didn’t feel it. Not yet. Adrenaline and shock were most effective pain killers.

Her ears rang with the echo of the shot and her senses short-circuited from the confusion of too much input all at once. She forgot the demon holding the gun, forgot the fear for her life, and just floated above it all in blissful nothingness for an eternity of seconds. She didn’t want to return to herself and feel the pain and terror of her helplessness. She didn’t want to feel herself die.

The choice was taken out of her hands when an unexpected voice sliced through the despair and pulled her back into her body. “Congratulations, sister. You’ve managed to fuck up so royally that I will finally get my dearest wish. Your death.”

Chloe gasped harshly as her mind delivered all the input from her abused body at once, and she cried out as the bullet wound throbbed and spilled her blood with each rapid beat of her heart. She fought through the distraction of the pain and focused on the voice. It made no sense to hear that voice here.

“I’d hoped you were dead, sister,” Legion spat, spinning to face the shadows of the stairwell, Chloe forgotten. “This time, I will know for certain.”

The shadows parted, and Legion’s demoness sister stepped into the candlelight. She was dressed in shiny, black leather and wearing spiked-heel boots, and each hand was curled around the hilt of a wicked, curved blade. The right side of her face was bathed in the glow of the flickering candle, and her features were exotic and beautiful. The left half of her face was in shadow, but Chloe could see melted skin, exposed skull, and a glowing white eye.

“Maze,” Chloe choked, surprise and hope giving her strength.

Her friend never took her eyes off her sister, but she replied shortly, “I got you, Decker.”

Legion’s form shimmered, and a replica of Chloe appeared. “I should have known you would be tied to this human, Mazikeen,” Legion said with Chloe’s voice. “Wherever our master can be found, so can you, like a parasite feeding on a shark.”

Maze didn’t hesitate to lash out with her lethal blades, and Legion dodged each and every swing. Maze changed her strategy and lashed out with a sharp kick of her boot, and Legion flew through the air before crashing against the wall. Maze was there to snatch her before she even hit the floor, and she landed a devastating blow to the fake Chloe’s face. Legion moaned Chloe’s pain, but Maze was not done with her. She continued to smash her fist, knife hilt clenched inside, into her sister’s face as she punctuated each hit with her words. “I am not...a parasite...you bitch!”

The blows continued to rain down on the demoness with her face, all pleas for mercy falling from her lips with Chloe’s own voice. “Maze, please!” the demon cried pitifully. “Please stop hurting me!”

Maze’s wrath would not be deterred, however. She grasped her sister by the neck and squeezed until the faux Chloe turned blue. Her voice was drenched in fury and disgust as she snarled, “You don’t who I am, sister, because you do not even know yourself. You hide behind other faces, use other voices, and steal other lives because you have none of your own. No one will miss you, Legion. They will rejoice when Lucifer ends you.”

Legion’s form shifted and blurred beneath Maze’s hold, and a smaller body reformed to take her place. Chloe cried out with fear and anguish as the innocent, beautiful features of her daughter took shape. Her blood ran cold when her daughter’s voice rang through the room with terrified tears. “Maze, why are you hurting me? I thought we were friends! Please let me go. You’re scaring me!”

Maze snatched her hand away from the small, delicate throat in her palm and scrambled back away from Trixie’s sobbing, frightened little body. “No,” Maze shook her head in denial. “No, sister, please...,” she trailed off as she watched Trixie’s doppelganger cower and tremble against the wall. “Not her,” Maze choked, her demon form melting away to be replaced by her human one.

The demon in little girl’s skin stood slowly to her feet and edged toward the stairs. “Just let me go, Maze,” Chloe’s baby sniffled, her breath catching with tears. “I want to go home.”

Mazikeen made no move to stop her as the little girl darted up the steps and disappeared. Shocked, tense silence descended over them like a heavy blanket preventing movement, but Chloe’s injuries would not be ignored for long. Her head swam with blood loss, and her stomach heaved, but nothing came up except for bitter bile. Each contraction of her stomach set off flares of agony through her body as the gun shot wound vied for prominence over her swollen cheek and sliced-open skin. She was lost in a maelstrom of pain and suffering, but cool hands and soothing words soon pulled her back from the brink.

“You’re okay, Decker,” Maze reminded her over and over again as she used her blade to slice away the shadows restraining her wrists. “The bleeding is already stopping. Linda must be tending to your body on earth.”

Nothing she said seemed to make sense to Chloe, but she couldn’t argue with the results. Almost like magic, a bandage appeared across her shoulders and pressure was applied to her shoulder, staunching the sluggish flow of her blood. Chloe flexed her wrists to regain feeling in her fingers, and it took several minutes of slow, deep breaths for her to calm her stomach. “Linda?” she asked, confusion still clouding her mind. “And you! How did you get here, Maze? Not that I’m complaining, mind you,” she added ruefully.

Gingerly, Maze helped Chloe to her feet and steadied her until she caught her balance. “I’m just that good, Decker,” she replied wryly before confessing, “Remember when I told you that everything that happens to your soul happens to your body, too? I saw your body change, and I could hear every word you spoke.” She paused to shoot her a flirty wink before adding, “And moaned. You’re a dirty, dirty girl, Decker. I definitely enjoyed the show.”

Chloe didn’t have the energy to waste on mortification. She would worry about Maze watching her writhe and orgasm later if she survived this clusterfuck. With extreme care, Chloe bent at the waist to retrieve her abandoned gun and leaned on Maze as they made their way up the stairs. Ignoring the jibe, she guessed, “You heard me mention a rebellion, didn’t you?”

Maze’s arm was a steel band of support around her waist as she practically carried Chloe up the steps and into the interior of the house. _Her_ house. “Yep,” she confirmed. “I had a feeling something wasn’t right about that, so I called Amenadiel and told him what was going on. He was _not_ happy with me, let me tell you. Of course, Linda overheard everything, and the next thing I know, they are both on your doorstep with little Charlie in tow. Linda stayed behind with the baby and your body, and Amenadiel flew us here. Ta-da.”

Tears swelled behind Chloe’s closed eyelids, but she could not keep them at bay. Her friends had worked together and risked their lives to help save her. A demon, an angel, and a human, her _family_ , had rescued her from certain death and destruction without hesitation. Gratitude and affection swelled in her chest until she could barely breathe, and she stopped in her tracks to wrap her arms around the badass demoness, and pulled her into a tight, painful embrace.

“Thank you, Maze,” Chloe sobbed, her tears falling against the silky copper skin of her friend’s neck. “You saved my life. You saved Trixie’s life. I can never repay you for what you’ve done. I love you, Mazikeen of the Lilim.”

Maze stiffened in her arms briefly before her own arms returned Chloe’s hug with awkward, stilted pats on her uninjured shoulder. She cleared her throat and said gruffly, “Gross, Decker. Don’t go all ‘damsel-in-distress’ on me now. Lucifer is doubtless tearing apart the city looking for you, and Amenadiel can only hold him back for so long. Let’s get you out of here, and we’ll talk about repayment when we get back home.”

Chloe laughed and withdrew from her friend to swipe at the tears that cleansed tracks in the dried blood splattering her face. “It’s a deal,” she agreed easily as they fell into step once more. As Maze led her through her house and out a door connecting to a garage, she asked, “How did you know where to find me?”

The demon led her to the passenger side of a wicked, low-slung vehicle and settled her into the front seat. She hurried around to the driver’s side, slid inside, and brought the car to life with a deafening roar. “I didn’t,” Maze yelled over the noise of the engine. “We left as soon as you started bleeding. Once we arrived, I had Amenadiel drop me off here so I could arm myself for the search. Imagine my surprise when I found you and my sister waiting here for me.”

Chloe frantically searched for a seatbelt as Maze pressed the accelerator to the floor, sending the car crashing through the wide, garage door and spinning out into the deserted road. She found none and could do nothing more than to hold on to Maze’s arm as she sped through the streets, careless of anyone or anything that dared get in the way. “You mean Lucifer doesn’t know you’ve found me?” she asked before a shriek ripped from her throat as a small, fat demon bounced off the windshield with a black, oily residue.

“No,” Maze confirmed, cutting the wheel sharply to take a corner on two wheels. “That’s why we need to hurry. His wrath is terrible when he loses his temper, and he will go nuclear when he hears that I let Legion escape, but he’s the only one that can stop her.”

Chloe swallowed her fear and clenched her fist against activating the mark. She would not take the coward’s out of this. She would stay and fight by his side to ensure he came back with her. She was done being separated from him by celestial bullshit. They were going to take care of Legion, change the lock, and go home. So help her, Satan.

Chloe ratcheted a new round into the chamber of her gun and fished out one of the knives still clipped to her leather hot pants. Maze shot her a look of approval, and Chloe said, “Step on it, Maze.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Betcha didn't see that one coming! Woo hoo! That's why this story is called Hell's "Belles" my friends. It's all about the ladies. 
> 
> Sidenote to my Hussies-in-Arms, DarkerSide and x_Luniana_x, I am laying the foundations for some truly epic smut, my friends. Feel free to use your imaginations. I know I am!
> 
> I'll be back very soon with the next chapter! I've got hours and miles to go before I sleep. Big love to all y'all. You spin me right round, baby, right round.**


	11. Lucifer

“Find her!” Lucifer bellowed, sending his troops scrambling. “I want Legion at my feet _alive_.”

His general pounded his fist to his heart and began shouting commands, but Lucifer didn’t wait around to hear them. With a thought, his devil wings flexed and carried him up into the sooty atmosphere. He flew through the air and his glowing red eyes scanned the desolate landscape below him for any sign of his detective, but there was no trace to be found. Fear and worry built inside of him as he imagined every horror that Legion could inflict on her soul, and it erupted from his mouth with a savage roar that echoed across his kingdom. He couldn’t lose her; not now when they were so close to being together permanently.

As he flew and searched, he castigated himself for his failure to protect her and his selfishness that had placed her in harm’s way. He should have never marked her and asked her to return to him in Hell. He hadn’t been thinking about all the ways it placed her in danger; he’d only been thinking about fucking her again and hearing her cry his name as he brought her to the peak over and over again. He’d coveted her desperately, and she was paying the price for his sins.

“Legion!” he yelled, his sonorous voice ringing out over the thousands of dwellings and torture chambers that comprised the heart of his kingdom. “Surrender yourself, and your death will be quick and painless!”

A dark speck on the horizon caught his attention, and it grew bigger and bigger as Lucifer flew straight toward it. The familiar sound of feathers ruffling in the arid breeze alerted him to the presence of an angel, and he braced himself for a confrontation with one of his siblings. No doubt, his dear old dad had heard about his plan to escape and had dispatched one his loyal children to prevent it. He did not have time for his father’s games or his siblings’ brown-nosing; he had far more important things to do. He had to find his detective.

His animosity cooled, however, when he was close enough to make out the familiar features of his brother Amenadiel. Lucifer’s stomach plummeted to the ground as the big man flew closer with a concerned look creasing his brow. There was only one reason why his brother would leave his child’s side so soon after his kidnapping. He was here because of Chloe.

“That was a generous offer, Luci,” Amenadiel called out when they were in hearing distance of each other. “But I have a feeling you will rescind it.”

Lucifer’s leathery devil wings beat against the air as he hovered a short distance away from him. “Brother,” he greeted him civilly if not warmly, “What brings you here? Shouldn’t you be at home covered in nephilim vomit?”

Amenadiel did not roll his eyes or humor him as per usual. In fact, he appeared rather angry. “You know why I’m here, Luci. Maze told me everything. By the time Linda and I arrived on Chloe’s doorstep, her body was showing signs of trauma.”

Lucifer’s wings froze and he plummeted several meters before he regained his position. “What kind of trauma, brother? Be specific,” he demanded, his voice cracking under the strain of his fear and rage.

Sympathy softened the harsh lines between his brother’s dark eyes, but that didn’t stop him from twisting the knife. “She’d obviously been struck, hard, across her right cheek, and blood was pouring from her nose. Linda managed to stop the bleeding, but when Chloe said Legion’s name, Maze insisted that we fly here at once to help her.”

“Mazikeen is here?” Lucifer asked, his hope surging uncontrollably. If anyone could find Legion, it was her sister. No one was a better hunter and tracker than his Maze.

Amenadiel sighed heavily and replied, “Yes, I dropped her at her dwelling a short while ago. She said she would meet us at your palace after she gathered her supplies.”

“Excellent,” Lucifer replied, his eyes already scanning the streets for signs of her car. “I suppose you must have met Legion during your brief stint as my stand-in, didn’t you?” Without waiting for him to reply, he continued, “Then you know what we are up against. We have to find them both quickly. The Detective’s life is in danger every second she’s with her.”

Amenadiel floated close enough to place a comforting hand on Lucifer’s shoulder. “We will find her, Luci. Do not forget that Chloe isn’t just human; she is Blessed by our father. She has protections around her that most mortals do not.”

For the first time, Lucifer was grateful for his father’s interference in his life. Hopefully, his father’s blessing would protect her long enough for him to rescue her. If he managed to get the detective out of this alive, he would even consider voicing his thanks. For Amenadiel, though, he did not hesitate to tell him, “Thank you, brother. I can’t bear to lose her again.”

Amenadiel nodded and swallowed thickly, “I know how you feel, Luci. She’s become as necessary as breathing to you, and you want to be with her every second of the day. You feel like you will go crazy if you can’t touch her, hold her, and kiss her for hours on end. She is your missing half; the part of you that you’ve been searching for all these centuries, and she always seems just out of reach.” Lucifer knew he was talking about himself now, too, and it made him feel uncomfortably affectionate for his stubborn sibling.

Lucifer was saved from formulating an answer by a commotion in the streets below them. He could see his general, Valac, roughly contain a human soul as more demons converged on the scene. It was an unusual sight and caught his interest immediately. Human souls were not allowed loose within the streets; they were trapped inside torture chambers reliving the worst moments of their lives in an endless loop with no hope of escape.

“Lucifer!” the human cried out for him in a familiar voice. “Lucifer, help me!”

Without waiting for his brother to follow him, Lucifer tucked his wings and rocketed toward the ground as Amenadiel called his name in pursuit. He had no time to waste; his detective needed him. The hot asphalt cracked and splintered beneath his feet when he landed in the midst of the chaos, and the surrounding demons scattered with hisses of fear as their King swept them aside with his massive wings.

“Valac, unhand her immediately,” he roared, his wrath consuming him as Chloe struggled and cried in his general’s strong grip.

His general released her with surprise, and Chloe ran into his arms. She wound her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest with heartbreaking sobs. He cradled her gently, being careful not to harm her further with his claws and stroked her beautifully messy hair.

“My lord,” his general protested bravely, “Human souls are not permitted to roam the city. Either this human has escaped her chamber, or this is Legion playing another one of her foul tricks.”

Chloe shuddered in his embrace and her voice was full of terrorized fear. “Legion nearly killed me before Maze got there. I managed to get away while they were fighting, but I ran right into more demons. Please, Lucifer, take me home. I don’t belong here!”

She broke down into ugly sobs that paralyzed him with their emotion. He wanted to believe it was her with every fiber of his being, but he’d been tricked by the demoness time after time. He would not continue making that mistake. Still, he could not stop himself from kissing her hair and murmuring quiet assurances in her ear. “Hush now, Detective,” he soothed her quaking form. “You are safe now.”

“I won’t be safe until I’m back home with my daughter,” she replied, her voice catching with tears. She pulled away from his chest, and his heart squeezed at the sight of her swollen cheek, busted bottom lip, and blood-splattered skin. “I just want to go home.”

His rage reignited at the signs of his failure to protect her, and he swept her up in his arms. “Then I shall take you there myself, Detective,” he assured her. He would leave with her now before anyone could stop them. He would change the lock, reunite Chloe with her body, and never look back. He would be free to resume his real life in Los Angeles with his real family.

Amenadiel glided to a smooth landing next to him and held out a staying hand. “Luci, wait,” he implored, his gaze resting suspiciously on the woman in his arms. “Are you certain that this is truly Chloe?”

The woman clinging to his neck spoke for herself. “Amenadiel! Thank goodness you’re here. Maze is fighting her sister all by herself in the basement of her home. She needs your help!”

Lucifer’s brother straightened his shoulders and belief washed over his features. “Luci, I dropped Maze there no less than an hour past. She could be there, injured or worse. I should go back and look for her.”

Lucifer nodded his head in agreement. “Find Mazikeen and meet me at the gates. We’re going home, brother.”

Both angel and devil wings spread wide to catch the wind, but before they could take flight, they were interrupted by the rev of a loud engine, the wail of an unholy horn, and demons screaming as they were mowed down by sleek, black sports car. Chloe clutched his neck and begged for him to take flight, but he resisted her pleas to watch the familiar vehicle spin to stop in a cloud of noxious fumes and smoke. The doors flew open on both sides to emit their passengers, and Lucifer’s stomach sank when Mazikeen appeared flanked by a replica of the woman in his arms. There was no discernable difference between them; they were both wearing his torn and bloodied shirt, both faces streaked with tear tracks and pain, and both achingly familiar.

The only difference was this new Chloe was pointing a gun straight at his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Arrrgh! Another cliffhanger! I guess I should confess to my new friends that I am, in fact, a sadist. The good news is that I don't like to leave you suffering for long. I have a beautiful Sunday afternoon stretching out ahead of me with nothing planned beyond writing and snacking. The cliffhanger will come to an end soon! All my love and all of my kisses go out to you guys!***


	12. Lucifer

“Lucifer!” the new Chloe shouted; her gun unwavering in her grip. “Put her down. That is Legion, not me.”

The Chloe in his arms screamed and cowered against him. “Don’t let her hurt me again! Please, Lucifer!”

No one else moved or spoke a word as Lucifer stood there frozen in indecision. Maze, however, was never one for fraught silences. “She’s telling the truth, Lucifer. This is the real Chloe. Legion escaped before I could capture her.”

“She’s lying!” Chloe wailed against his chest. “She’s trying to trick you into killing me so that you will have no reason to go back to earth. Maze has wanted to come home for a long time, and she sees this as her chance to stay.”

Lucifer glanced at Maze questioningly. “You have been awfully adamant about that of late, Mazikeen. You damn near kicked my arse over it not too long ago.”

Maze’s visage changed, revealing her demoness heritage for all to see. “Yeah, I’m getting ready to do it again if you don’t listen to us. That. Is not. Decker.”

Lucifer’s hold on the body in his arms loosened, and he set her down on her feet, but did not yet let her go. Unaccountably, his gaze kept returning to the Chloe fearlessly pointing her service weapon while ignoring the threat all around her. He’d seen this Chloe before at more crime scenes than he could remember. He knew that stubborn determination to place herself in harm’s way for the people she loved. Had he gotten it wrong? Had he allowed his guilt and shame at failing her cloud his judgement so horribly?

“Lucifer, please,” the Chloe pressed to his side begged. “Please believe me. I have never lied to you. Just take me home, and you can come back and sort this out later. Let’s just leave, please!”

Lucifer’s arms dropped and he took a solid step away from her, but his hand fisted around her falling ponytail. “That’s not true, is it, Detective?” he asked, raising his gaze to fix on the woman with her finger caressing the trigger.

Her expression relaxed with understanding and she lowered the gun to point at the ground. “No, that’s not true,” she agreed readily. “I’ve lied to you, I’ve betrayed you, and I’ve received your absolution. Several times, in fact.”

Maze added, “Yeah, you did,” and raised her hand for a high-five. The detective, having both hands occupied with weapons, left her hanging.

Lucifer twisted the hair in his clawed grip until the woman attached to it cried out with pain. He shook her savagely, ignoring her pleas, and reared his free hand back. With an inhuman snarl, he sank his wicked claws into her stomach and eviscerated her without hesitation. He tossed the demon in Chloe’s form to the pavement at his feet and boomed, “Remove her face or I will peel it off myself!”

The woman trembled and moaned in pain as she clutched at the gaping, raw wound in her flesh. Her form shimmered and changed until the midnight shadows and smoke of her demon form appeared. The wound was still there, but the blood was now black as tar. “My King, let me explain!” she begged, slowly crawling away from his looming rage.

All the fear, guilt, panic, betrayal, and fury coalesced into a raging inferno within him, and he roared his anger to the skies. “No more! No more lies from you, Legion.” Gesturing to his general, he commanded, “Seize her, bind her, and gag her, Valac.”

The demon summoned two others and rushed to his master’s bidding, taking great relish in the job. He didn’t waste any more time on the duplicitous demon shrieking for mercy. He closed the distance between him and his detective and pulled her into his arms. Even though she returned his embrace with one arm, she winced and flinched away from his tight hold. She hissed through her teeth and pulled back to protect her left shoulder.

“Detective, have you been shot?” he asked, his form melting away to human. He ran his hands carefully across every wound and scratch as he searched her brilliant blue eyes for answers.

She engaged the safety on her gun and tucked it in the back of a pair of leather hot pants that hadn’t been there the last time he saw her and tossed her blade to the ground. “Yes, the bitch shot me with my own gun,” she admitted with a seething glare at the bound and gagged demoness held by his general. “She was going to try and take my place, Lucifer. She wanted to trick you into taking her back to earth with you. She is scary crazy, like even more than Maze.”

“Hey!” the demoness in question protested. “You haven’t seen the level of crazy I’m capable of yet, Decker,” Maze informed her with a seductive wink. “Maybe later.”

Amenadiel strode into their midst and he rested his hand lightly on Chloe’s uninjured shoulder. “I am glad that you are safe, if not unharmed, Chloe. There would have been no peace in any of the three realms until you were found.”

“True, brother,” Lucifer concurred, scooping the real Chloe into his arms. “I would have stormed the gates of the Silver City to find you, love.”

Chloe shifted until she could rest her head wearily on his shoulder. “I know, Lucifer. Just as I would storm the gates of Hell for you.”

Lucifer’s wings unfurled from his back, and the angel feathers glowed with celestial brilliance. “You will never have to search for me here again, Detective. We’re going home.”

“My lord!” Valac interjected, his tone desperate with confusion. “Who is this human soul that you would choose her over us?What about Legion? Are you truly leaving us again so soon?”

Lucifer shook his questions away, content to hold Chloe safe in his arms. “This is my consort, Valac. Her name is Chloe Decker, and since her home is in the human realm, I will reside there with her permanently. As for Legion...,” he trailed off, fixing the struggling demoness with a cold stare. “Do whatever you want with her. Give her to the masses to be torn in shreds for all I care. I am done with her. I’m done with this,” he gestured expansively to the gathered demons and the wrecked, hellish landscape. “I suggest you seize power when I am gone, Valac. It will take a powerful will to rule your brethren in my absence.”

Legion screamed behind her gag as several demons converged on her with revenge in their eyes. Valac was speechless, but he still pressed his clenched fist to his chest and replied deferentially, “As you wish, My lord.”

He spread his wings wide and glanced over to Maze. He wouldn’t be holding his detective in his arms if it hadn’t been for her. She was the only one who had remained stubbornly and steadfastly by his side throughout the billions of years they’d been trapped here together. He couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. “Mazikeen, if you wish to stay, I will not stop you, but I would prefer that you return with us.  You must make your choice quickly, though. Once I leave, I will not be coming back, and the gates will not allow you passage to the human realm, either.”

His heart stopped as she seriously considered her options. He knew that she had trouble adjusting to the human way of living, but he’d thought she had formulated real ties during her years among them. He didn’t want to leave her behind; she belonged by his side as both friends and equals. Still, he would not take her choice away from her ever again. He would abide by her wishes, no matter how painful to him.

“Maze, come home,” Chloe implored her, reaching her hand toward her. “We need you. Trixie needs you. You are part of our family now.”

Amenadiel approached the indecisive demoness and pulled her to his chest for a strong hug. “Linda would be devastated if you didn’t come back, and Charlie needs you, too. He has a human mother and a godmother in Chloe, but he will need his Auntie Maze to protect him and teach him how to defend himself.” Maze’s hands reluctantly wound around his waist to return his hug, and he added softly, “I need you, too. Come home with us, Maze.”

The distinct sounds of sniffling emerged from where her face was hidden against his wide chest, but she gently freed herself from his embrace. “Ugh, how do you humans stand all this mushy crap?” she demanded, surreptitiously swiping away tears. “Of course, I’m coming with you. This place sucks donkey dicks. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Lucifer’s heart swelled with new hope and joy, and he launched himself and the detective into the sooty skies. “You heard the woman, brother!” he called out joyfully. “Bring Mazikeen and follow me to the gates. We’re all going home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I know some of y'all wanted to see Lucifer go on a murderous rampage, but he has evolved somewhat beneath Chloe's influence. I hope you weren't too disappointed by the climax, because the real action will take place back on earth! There is so much smut to be had, people! 
> 
> Thank you to all my friends for sticking with me through the cliffhangers and uncertainty. I have a few more chapters up my sleeve for this one, and I think you will enjoy them very much. Big love and hugs to everyone! I'm going to take a break and read some trashy smut for a few hours to recharge my battery. I'll be back with you all soon!***


	13. Chloe

If her body wasn’t such a morass of aches and pains, she would have enjoyed flying through the air in Lucifer’s arms. As it was, she still thrilled at the wash of the hot, ashy breeze blowing her sweaty hair away from her face and the swooping sensation in her stomach as they flew across a wide, deep lake of wicked blue flames. Lucifer glanced down at her frequently as if to make sure she was real and to ask her over and over if she was quite certain that she was well.

To be quite honest, she wasn’t entirely sure. Now that the adrenaline had ebbed away and she was once again safe and on her way home, she was swamped with dizziness, exhaustion, and throbbing, pulsing pain that radiated from her shoulder. She wasn’t sure how much blood her body had lost before Linda had arrived to patch her up, but she had a feeling it was a significant amount. On top of all that, she was also incredibly thirsty, and her stomach cramped with emptiness. She just wanted to go home, pop some leftover pain meds in her cabinet, and fall asleep for days. Maybe she could even convince Lucifer to stay with her until she woke.

After the third time he asked, his tone unnaturally alarmed, she sighed heavily, “No, Lucifer. I’m not okay. I’ve lost a lot of blood, and I hurt everywhere. I feel so tired that I could just close my eyes and never open them again.”

Chloe gave action to her words, and her eyelids fell shut as if weighted with chains, and she actively sought the blissful oblivion of sleep. Beneath her ear, she could hear Lucifer’s heartbeat thrumming like a hummingbird, and his deep voice resonated in his chest when he called out desperately, “Amenadiel! She is fading!”

Chloe wasn’t concerned, though. She just needed to sleep, to forget the pain wracking her body, and the fear of losing everything she loved, and just rest. She was so fucking tired, and sleep was beckoning her with a lover’s appeal. No more thinking, no more feeling; she just wanted to heal.

A firm pat against her cheek forced her to open her eyes, but they were too heavy for her to manage it for long. “Detective, open your eyes for me, love,” Lucifer demanded, gripping her chin with his fingers. He captured her bleary gaze, and she smiled softly at the sight of his handsome face filling her vision. “That’s my good girl,” he crooned, tracing her cheek with his thumb. “Stay with me for a just a little while longer. See? We’ve almost reached the gates. We’re halfway to home. I need you to be strong and hang on for me. Can you do that, Detective?”

Chloe was floating in the magical place between awake and asleep where time had no meaning. She would stay awake because he wanted her to do so. She would do anything he wanted as long he stayed with her. “I want to,” she said sleepily. “I want to be your good girl, Lucifer.”

His chest vibrated with a tortured groan, and Chloe idly wondered if he were in pain, too. That thought was whisked away as Lucifer’s feet made contact with solid ground, and though his landing was smooth, she still felt a flash of pain sear through her shoulder. She closed her eyes against it and didn’t think twice about sinking into the black oblivion, but when Lucifer growled, “Eyes. Open!”, she obeyed his command on instinct.

A weak bubble of laughter spilled past her lips as she focused her gaze on his furious countenance. She felt punch-drunk and loopy, but she still managed to lift her hand weakly to touch his stubbled face. “Your eyes are so red right now. I would do anything for those eyes.”

Lucifer cradled her closer to his chest and lowered his lips to kiss along her hairline. “I am glad to hear it, Detective, because these eyes are commanding you to stay awake and focused. You must not close them again. Promise me.”

“Okay,” Chloe answered simply. She wasn’t sure why he was so adamant about it, but she would do her best to comply.

A wash of air announced the arrival of Amenadiel and Maze. She tried hard to pay attention to them, and their blurry images sharpened a bit. She watched as Maze released her hold on the angel and headed straight for her. She looked angry and a little scary, but Chloe wasn’t bothered. The demoness would never hurt her.

“What the hell, Decker?” Maze demanded, reaching out to pinch her good arm.

Chloe yelped at the mean sting of pain, but it grounded her and made her focus. “Ouch! That hurt, damn it!” she griped right back.

“Good!” her so-called friend yelled. “You started to fade, Decker. Literally fade. Your soul was coming untethered from your body. Do you know what that means?”

Amenadiel, ever the peacemaker, stepped in to diffuse the tense moment. “Calm down, Maze. Chloe isn’t going anywhere. We won’t let that happen.”

Confusion made her head spin, and she looked up at the handsome face of her king. “What’s she talking about, Lucifer?”

His expression was wrecked, and it made her heart crack down the middle. She knew he would tell her the truth, no matter how dire. “You’re dying, Detective,” he told her softly. “You were right all along. You are doubly vulnerable right now. Both your physical body and your soul have sustained massive damage. You’re slipping away from me.”

A frisson of icy panic raced up her spine, jolting her heart like an AED. “No,” she shook her head in denial, pushing against his chest. “No, I don’t want to die. Put me down, Lucifer. I can walk, damn it!”

Her burst of panic-induced strength fled swiftly, though, and she had no choice but to relax against him when he refused to release her. His arms were like iron bands holding her captive, and he growled, “I will not let you go until you are safely reunited with your body. All you have to do is hang on a little longer. We are at the gates, Detective.”

“Speaking of gates,” Maze chimed in, her tone still pissy, “How exactly are you going to keep any of them from following you again?”

Lucifer turned to study the heavy, cast iron gates, and Chloe could make out the faint, glowing symbol of his name. “I’m not going to stop them, Maze,” he replied grimly. “I’m going to re-route them.”

Chloe clung to his neck as they approached the intimidating structure, but their progress was arrested by Amenadiel. “Luci, wait! You can’t mean...,” he trailed off, shock etched in the dark lines of his face. “It’s not possible.”

Lucifer shrugged his brother’s staying hand from his arm and placed his right palm over top of the symbol etched in the gates. “Oh, it’s possible, brother. I can feel it,” he said, closing his eyes as the portal glowed brilliant crimson beneath his hand. “Don’t get squeamish on me now. This will benefit you, as well. Once word of your child reaches the Silver City, our siblings will descend en masse to see for themselves. Defending the silver gates will keep them too busy to pester him until he’s well into adulthood.”

Chloe could see the struggle on the angel’s face as he weighed the truth and consequences of his brother’s words. With a sigh of defeat, Amenadiel nodded his head sharply and said, “Do it quickly before I change my mind.”

He didn’t wait any longer. Lucifer held her tight with one arm and pushed against the seal with all his strength. She heard the groan of metal bending beneath his hand, but the lock did not change. It blazed bright enough to make her blink, and Lucifer yanked his hand away with snarled curse. “It isn’t working,” he said through gritted teeth. “I know it can be done, but it isn’t working.”

Like a ghost in the night, a voice whispered in Chloe’s ear, and she knew what she had to do. Capturing Lucifer’s hand in her own, she twined their fingers together and pressed their hands to the glowing lock. “You don’t need to change the lock, Lucifer. It just needs to be Blessed.”

Closing her eyes, she recalled the memory of glimpsing the intricate and delicate gates of the Silver City. She remembered the healing light, the ethereally lovely voices raised in song, and the joy that had saturated her heart before she’d crashed back down from the heavens. The gates in her mind swung open, releasing a brilliant white light that seared her pupils and made her blind. That same voice wove around her in a comforting embrace, offering her respite from the shackles of pain and exhaustion that tied her to her body. She wanted to go through those gates with the voice and be happy and free, but something held her back.

“Lucifer, she’s fading again!” Maze’s worried voice carried to her from far away. “Hurry!”

The mark on her chest burst into flames, and the comforting presence retreated from her. She cried out and reached for it blindly, but the silver gates slammed closed around it. Lucifer’s mark danced with ice blue flames and she felt it drawing her back, leading her away from the promised glory that awaited her just behind the locked gates, and she was torn between wanting to go and wanting to stay.

 _Not yet, child...Not yet..._ the voice whispered softly in her mind.

Chloe’s fingers went limp and fell away from its hold on Lucifer’s hand. She couldn’t open her eyes, and he was going to be so angry with her for not obeying him. Vaguely, she could hear him calling her name, but she didn’t have the strength to comfort him. She was so tired. So very, very tired.

As a fresh, cool breeze flowed over her skin, she sank down into oblivion and knew nothingness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I promise this is the last cliffhanger, y'all! This story is winding to a close, but I promised you smut, and I will deliver! 
> 
> I can't thank all of you enough for the outpouring of love and support I've received from this fandom. I know I haven't replied much today, but I have read every single one of your comments and laughed and blushed and teared up at your supportive words. I figured the best payment I could give you was another chapter, so here you go. I'll be back very soon, but my leisurely weekend is over and real life beckons. I will do my damndest to have another chapter in the next few days. Peace and kindness to you all!***


	14. Chloe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Thankfully, work was very slow today and the boss was away, so I was able to fix this chapter quickly! I am finally happy with it now, and I think you you guys will be, too! I must give a shout out to my dear friend CowandCalf. Even though she doesn't follow this fandom, she was able to talk me off the ledge and help me screw my head on right, as she always does. Big thanks to all of you for your honest feedback and support. Because of you all, this story has been saved and set right. Though it starts out similarly to the last effort, you will quickly find it is not the same at all!***

Warmth surrounded her, strong arms held her close, and a soft, downy pillow cushioned her head; those were the first sensations that penetrated the oblivion of nothingness that Chloe had floated in for an indeterminate time. The next thing to reach her was the scent of sandalwood and citrus, leather and amber, and the fresh scent of clean laundry, and she smiled as she tried to remember how to open her eyes. She was unsuccessful, and oblivion claimed her again.

The bed shifted beside her, tugging her back to the surface, and a wash of hot breath tickled her ear as she was pulled into an embrace. She settled back against the hard body with a hum of contentment as she was enclosed by firm muscles that felt like heaven brushing against her naked body. Hands stroked down the slope of her back, feathered through her hair, and brushed against her breasts, sending flares of arousal into the darkness. She sighed happily as the hands traveled every dip and valley of her body except for the one place that needed it the most. She wrinkled her eyebrows and her hips flexed of their own volition as the hands continued to map the dips and swells of her body, sending persistent ripples of need spreading out from her core. She wanted the hands to touch her there.

“More,” a raspy sound escaped her throat. The hands paused before they resumed their journey, but this time with more pressure and intent. Still, they did not trespass between her thighs where she wanted them. Frustration mounted, pulling her closer to wakefulness, and she grasped the hand and brought it to the lips of her pussy. “Please,” she breathed, softly floating just beneath the surface.

Lips kissed a path along her neck, but the fingers did not move to ease her ache. “Detective, you’re awake,” Lucifer murmured in her ear, his fingers sliding lower to give her what she wanted. “How do you feel?”

She stretched against the hard planes of his body and hummed sleepily as he gently teased and stroked through her lower lips. “Mmm-hmm,” she confirmed, luxuriating in the touch of his hot skin against her own. “Hungry, thirsty, and I have to pee. But not enough to want you to stop what you’re doing.”

Lucifer chuckled darkly against her hair and pulled her tighter against his front until his hard cock snuggled along the crack of her ass. “I have no desire to ever stop touching you again, love,” he whispered. “But there is plenty of time ahead of us now that you’ve come back to me.”

Despite the rising heat in her blood, fractured memories began playing behind her closed eyes. She saw flashes of faces, gates, and blood; she remembered pain, fear, and rescue. They played like an old film reel in her mind with missing scenes and skipped parts, but the last thing she remembered was a pair of glowing red eyes commanding her to do...something. Was it all a dream? It must have been a dream, because her skin was unblemished, and the only thing she felt was safe and loved.

She lay unresisting in his arms, soaking in the comfort and heat pressed into her back. “What happened, Lucifer?”

His soft lips paused in their worship of her neck, and his tone was cautious as he asked his own question. “What do you remember?”

Chloe had to strain herself to think back. It was even more difficult when Lucifer resumed his appreciation for Chloe’s breasts. “I remember you flying us over the lake of fire and landing by the gates. You were so angry at me, but I can’t remember why. All I remember is the red glow of your eyes.”

“Hmm...,” he hummed noncommittally as he slid her bare leg over top of his own to gain easier access to her flesh. “You weren’t all there for the rest,” he hedged, stopping short of divulging everything.

She knew she should be concerned about her lack of memory, but she couldn’t seem to get worked up about it. Chloe felt boneless, but not weak; strength and vitality hummed through her body. Distantly, she was aware of her body’s other needs, but they were kept at bay by the hypnotic talent of his fingertips. “Did you fix the portal?” she thought to ask as she ran her hand lazily along his thick thigh.

“ _We_ fixed the portal, Detective,” Lucifer confirmed, his hands moving over her at a snail’s pace. “If my subjects attempt to use my mark, they will find themselves on the pointy ends of angel swords.”

Sweet, blessed relief washed through her, and her stomach fluttered as he continued to distract her with his touch. “So, you’re home to stay? Permanently?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied lazily. His fingertip traced around Chloe’s clit, and her stomach turned concave with a contraction of pleasure. “You will never get rid of me so easily again.”

Chloe’s heart squeezed in her chest, and her tone was breathless when she replied, “Good. I’m never letting you go.”

Lucifer kissed a slow, wet path across her shoulder, and Chloe trembled as his fingertips brushed against the slick lips of her sex. Chloe arched into his touch and moaned softly as he dipped his fingers into her slick heat and tormented her with gentle sweeps of his fingers that only made her want more.

“Are you two going to get on with it, or what? It’s been a long, boring three days. Either commence with the fucking or get a move on. I’m ready for a drink,” a new voice announced from beside the bed.

A startled yelp erupted from her chest, and her eyes flew open to fix on the chair situated next to the bed. Maze was there, feet draped over the arm, fingers swiping across the screen of her phone with impatience. “Maze!” Chloe exclaimed, pulling the sheet higher over her chest. “What are doing here?”

Maze looked up from her phone and shot Chloe a perplexed look. “Why wouldn’t I be here? Someone had to help clean you up and watch you when business called him away.”

“Three days?” she repeated weakly. “As in, I’ve been asleep in the bed for three whole days?”

“Not all of it, love,” Lucifer rushed to reassure her. “We had to move you here when we got back, and then there was the matter of bathing you. You’ve only been asleep in my bed for little more than two days.”

Chloe raised herself up on her elbow, careful to clutch the sheet to her chest, as she demanded, “What happened to me, Lucifer?”

His expression shuttered, but she glimpsed a flash of anguish before he schooled his features. “Must we discuss it right now, Detective?” he asked with charming evasion. “All that matters in this moment is that we are here together, safe and sound. Questions and answers can wait for tomorrow. Tonight is about celebrating.”

“Is that what you’re calling it now, Lucifer? Celebrating?” Maze quipped, effectively breaking the building tension. She held her phone up and clicked a picture of them, adding, “I prefer good old-fashioned fucking.”

“Maze!” Chloe exclaimed, her face turning hot all the way up to her ears. She could tell they were keeping something from her, but Lucifer had never lied to her before. If the truth could wait, she could, too. Besides, she had much bigger and scarier things to worry about now. Like a demoness with boundary issues.

Lucifer’s eyes sparkled in the sunlit glow of the room, and he leaned forward to free the sheet she held clutched to her chest. “She’s not entirely wrong, Detective. Fucking is a foregone conclusion of the evening’s festivities, but not the only thing on the agenda,” he explained, reaching out to run his finger over the swell of her breast. Her chest rose to his touch, and her breath caught in her throat and she forgot that they had company. “A celebration requires food, drinks, music, and dancing, too. Would you dance with me tonight, Detective?”

Chloe wanted all of it. She had just cause to celebrate, because all the people she loved were safe and within reach. It didn’t matter what journey had led them to this place; all that mattered was that they were here. “I would love to dance with you again, Lucifer.” She hesitated for only a moment before she looked over her shoulder at the exotic woman thoroughly enjoying the show. “Maze can come with us, too, but only for the dinner and dancing.”

Her friend rolled her eyes and huffed, “Typical human response. It’s just sex, Decker. Besides, I’ve seen everything there is to see already. Don’t forget, I was watching the whole time you were with him in Hell last time. Not gonna lie; you’re freaking hot when you orgasm.”

Chloe groaned as embarrassment flooded her face, and she turned her back on her to hide her face against Lucifer’s chest. A dark chuckle echoed beneath her ear, and he replied, “Oh, Maze, you have no idea. However, we must respect her limits. Perhaps one day she will consent to allow you to watch, but it is much too soon. For now, let’s just celebrate the fact that she is here with us once more.”

Maze sighed dramatically and stood to her feet. “Suit yourselves. I’m going to go get ready and I’ll meet you both at Lux in two hours. I plan to get Decker drunk off her ass and watch her dance. Maybe she’ll even let me warm her up for you.”

“Goodbye, Maze,” Chloe prompted her to leave without subtlety. “Don’t let the elevator hit you in the ass on the way out.”

Her wicked laughter trailed after her as she sauntered away with the last word. Lucifer rolled their bodies until Chloe was plastered across his chest, and he ran his big palms up and down the bare sweep of her spine. “Don’t let her fool you, Detective,” he reassured her. “Mazikeen was most distraught when you didn’t wake up immediately. This is her way of coping with the stress of the past several days.”

Chloe fidgeted against the press of his hard cock against the soft plains of her belly. “Would you really let her watch us...doing that?” she couldn’t help but ask. She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it.

Lucifer took a moment to consider her question seriously before he answered. “Detective, you must remember that Maze and I have been together for billions of years. There is no one else I trust like her. While our sexual relationship ended thousands of years ago, we have seen and done everything together. With you, though, everything is different. I couldn’t imagine sharing you with anyone else, but Maze is not just anyone. Should you ever wish to experiment with her, I would most definitely enjoy watching, but I have no desire to touch anyone but you.”

Chloe tried to wrap her mind around the expansive history between her love and her friend, but there was no way to comprehend the layers of their relationship with each other. Maybe sometime in the future she would be tempted to put on a show for him, but for now she only wanted him and no one else. “That’s another topic that can wait for tomorrow, Lucifer. For now, I want to celebrate with you.”

He growled playfully and nipped at her chin as he tossed the covers away from them and picked her up to carry her toward the bathroom. “As Maze would say, let’s get on with it. We can begin our celebration in the shower. What do you say, Detective?”

Chloe bit her lip and held on tight as he maneuvered her into the shower stall and turned on the multiple shower heads with warm water. “I say let the celebration commence.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Well, friends? I told you everything would be okay! I hope you are ready for some light, sexy fun times before things turn dirty. I'm looking forward to writing their celebration at Lux! I think you will love it!
> 
> Seriously, thank you to all my amazing friends who have supported me and continued to be my cheerleader. I feel like Chloe; I am truly Blessed.***


	15. Lucifer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***For maximum reading enjoyment, I suggest queuing up The Weeknd's song "Earned It" when Lucifer and Chloe have their dance ;) ***

Lucifer leaned one elbow on the bar, idly sipping a drink, as he watched Chloe throw her head back and laugh at something Maze whispered in her ear. His lips turned up in amusement when she finally capitulated and joined Maze for another tequila shooter. His detective was the most beautiful woman in the room, and he knew he wasn’t the only one staring at her, but he wasn’t worried. Her gaze traveled to him frequently, always searching him out when he wasn’t by her side, and her eyes lit up with happiness each time she found him.

It had been difficult to sidetrack her since she woke up only four hours past, but he was an old pro at evasive maneuvers. Each time she'd asked a question about what had happened at the gates, he'd redirected her with food, drinks, and his lips. He knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid the topic for long, but he was determined to put it off for as long as possible. He couldn’t bear to remember those moments, and he was in no rush to relive them even for her. All that mattered was that she was healthy, whole, and here.

In the two hours they’d been at Lux, he’d been bombarded with people vying for his attention, but he had rebuffed them all. When one of his ex-lovers boldly insinuated herself into his personal space, though, he offered her a genuine smile of welcome.

“Why are you mooning over her by yourself when you could just walk over and join her?” his therapist asked, taking up the empty stool next to him.

With effort, he tore his gaze away from Chloe as Maze led her out onto the dancefloor full of gyrating humans. He fixed his gaze on the petite blonde woman with black-framed glasses sipping on a Shirley Temple and replied lightly, “Color me surprised, Linda. I didn’t think I would be seeing you anytime soon since you seem to perpetually have an infant attached to your breast. Where is the little leech, by the way?”

Linda sat her glass down on the bar and swiveled her stool to face him with her “Therapist Face” in full effect. “Lucifer, you’re deflecting again. However, I feel compelled to remind you, once again, that discussing my anatomy is off-limits and referring to your nephew as a ‘leech’ is not appropriate. Charlie is at home with his father. I wanted to come by to check up on my patient.”

As if she were a magnet, his eyes were drawn back to Chloe laughing and dancing with a handsy Maze. Her cheeks were flushed with pink, her blue eyes sparkled with happiness, and her low-cut red dress showed off her curves to maximum appeal. “Look for yourself, Dr. Martin. She is radiating with perfect health. There aren’t even any scars to blemish her skin. You did an impeccable job.”

Linda reached up to turn his head back toward her. When she was assured of his undivided attention, she replied, “I wasn’t talking about Chloe. I was talking about you, Lucifer.”

He freed his chin from her firm grip and stalled answering by taking a long swallow of the amber liquid in his glass. He motioned to his employee to give him a refill before he finally said, “Why would you feel the need to check up on me? I have everything I ever wanted.”

“That doesn’t negate the effects of everything that’s happened over the last several days, and I think you know that. You have suffered trauma and loss, grief and pain. The only person you’ve ever loved more than yourself died in your arms, Lucifer. It doesn’t matter that everything worked out in the end. Those feelings aren’t just going to go away on their own.”

Lucifer clenched his jaw as he sought Chloe out once more. He found her walking arm-in-arm with Mazikeen as they made their way off the dancefloor headed toward the restrooms. She waved at him and blew him an exuberant kiss as she and Maze disappeared into the loo. Only when she was out of sight did he deign to address her remarks. “If I ignore them long enough, they will.”

Linda stirred her drink until the maraschino cherries danced in a tornado inside the glass. “Have you talked to her about it? Does she know?”

“No, her memories of the event are fractured and spotty, and she won’t ever find out if I can help it,” he replied sharply, leveling his friend with a simmering glower. “There is no point in needlessly burdening her with that information. It would serve no good purpose.”

Linda sighed heavily and shook her head. “The truth always finds a way, Lucifer, and I think she needs to hear it from you. Not only for her sake, but for yours, as well. She’s so much stronger than you think. Give her the opportunity to help shoulder the burden of your pain and allow her the chance to comfort you for a change.”

“I don’t need comforting, Linda. I need to celebrate, which is what I’m doing right now,” he scowled, tossing back his drink and rapping on the bar for another.

Linda finished off her own drink, too, and stood up from the stool to straighten her dress. She was ridiculously shorter than he, and human to boot, but she always managed to make him feel vulnerable with her observations. This time was no different. “That’s my point, Lucifer. You’re not celebrating. You’re brooding and scaring away your patrons. If you were celebrating, you would be the one on the dancefloor with her, laughing with her, and having a good time. Instead, you let Maze take your place while you hide in the shadows.”

Lucifer spied Maze and Chloe exiting the restrooms and heading his way, so he decided to prove to the good doctor that she was wrong, and he was right. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe the next dance belongs to me. Don’t you need to run along and tend to your offspring? My brother is doubtless in over his head, and he hardly has the necessary equipment to nourish him.”

Though he didn’t wait for her reply, she still called after him, “You need to tell her how you feel, Lucifer!”

He ignored her advice and intercepted the tipsy duo heading toward the bar. As if on cue, the thumping music faded away to be replaced by a new song that pulsed through the air like pure, liquid sex. Maze, rightly intuiting that her playtime was over, excused herself to greet her best friend at the bar, leaving Chloe alone with him. She glowed with health and vitality, her skin unblemished and scented with his soap, and all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and feel her hold him back.

“Detective, I believe you owe me a dance,” he greeted her, holding his hand out in offering.

In the background, couples gathered to sway and slow dance together as The Weeknd crooned, _You make it look like it’s magic/’Cause I see nobody, nobody but you, you, you._ Chloe’s face lit up with a smile and she took his hand without hesitation as he led her to the middle of the floor. As if by magic, the crowd parted before them and gave them a wide berth as he pulled her into his arms. Her own arms twined behind his neck, her fingers playing with his hair, as he gripped her hips and began to move in time with the seductive beat.

“I saw you talking with Linda a few minutes ago,” she announced as their bodies pressed against each other. “I can’t believe she came! She hasn’t left her house since the night Charlie was taken.”

Lucifer ran his palms up and down the slope where her hips met her ass and stopped himself from reminding her of Linda’s presence at her bedside three days past. Instead, he replied caustically, “Yes, and I rather wish she had remained at home this time, as well.”

Chloe shot him a look of censure. “Why would you say that? Linda is our friend and the mother of your nephew. She’s been a such a big help for us both.”

Lucifer pulled her in even closer until he could press the hard length of his cock against her stomach as they swayed to the music. “Yes, she is full of helpful advice, isn’t she?” he quipped drily.

Chloe’s laugh filtered to his ears above the music. “What did she say to make you so grumpy?” she asked, reaching up to smooth the lines between his eyebrows.

He considered diverting her attention with a kiss, but he answered her as honestly as he could without revealing everything instead. “She said I needed to tell you how I feel, Detective. Would you like to know how I’m feeling right now?”

As The Weeknd crooned, _You know our love would be tragic/So you don’t pay it, don’t pay it no mind/We live with no lies/Hey, hey/And you’re my favorite kind of night,_ Chloe ran her hand down his chest and over his abs until she encountered his stiff cock behind his zipper. She squeezed him just hard enough to make him throb in her palm. “I think I can take a good guess,” she teased him with a wicked smile.

Lucifer’s hand edged between the slit in her dress, and he found the smooth length of her thigh and pulled her knee up to his hip. Her breaths were shallow and fast as he dipped her shortly before pulling her back up to face him, and he replied by claiming her lips with his own. She bloomed at his touch, opening her mouth to receive him, and he swept inside to sample the flavor of salt, lime, and tequila on her tongue.  

_‘Cause girl you’re perfect/You’re always worth it/And you deserve it/The way you work it..._

He couldn’t get enough of her, of the taste and feel of her, of the sound of her heartbeat and her hum of pleasure, of the sight of her swollen lips and lust-glazed eyes. She was gloriously alive with passion in his arms, and neither of them seemed to remember that they were surrounded by drunken strangers as they stopped dancing and explored each other with building desire. He hadn’t fucked her since she woke up, too invested in seeing to her comfort and health, but his patience was nearly at its breaking point, especially when she licked his bottom lip and tugged on it with her teeth.

He was so lost in her that he never noticed when the song stopped playing until a loud wolf whistle sliced through the club, quickly followed by racy suggestions and calls for them to “get a room!”  that sounded suspiciously like Mazikeen. Chloe hid her flaming cheeks behind her hands, and Lucifer tucked her against his chest as he waved his acknowledgement to the rowdy crowd.

“Shall we take this celebration upstairs, Detective?” he suggested next to her ear as he shot Maze a warning look for miming a blow job from across the room.

“Yes, please,” she agreed, looping her arm through his own and following him toward the private elevator.

She weathered the good-natured cat calls from the men and the offers to join them from the women as Lucifer escorted her onto the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse. Once the doors closed, however, their audience was forgotten. Lucifer crowded her into the corner of the elevator, cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her like he’d never see her again. She kissed him back, her tongue boldly darting out to twine with his own as her hands desperately yanked and tugged on his shirt until it was free from his pants.

Before he was ready, the elevator doors slid open, and he lifted her into his arms, his hands braced on each cheek of her ass, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as she continued to kiss him while running her fingers through his hair. Unerringly, he headed for his bedroom and lowered her feet to floor before he finally broke away from her lips. Her breaths were coming fast, and her skin was flushed with desire, and he was torn between wanting to fuck her like an animal and needing to savor her like fine wine.

The choice was taken out of his hands when she pushed the spaghetti straps of her dress over her shoulders and allowed it to fall at her feet in a whisper of silk. He sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of her unbound breasts, red thong underwear, and shiny black heels, but she did not give him time to fully appreciate the picture. She gripped the opening of his white dress shirt in each hand and yanked them apart, sending buttons flying across the room.

“I want it off,” she demanded, tugging and releasing his belt buckle. “All of it, Lucifer.”

He would never deny her anything she wished for, so he helped her divest himself of his shirt, shoes, socks, and pants until he was naked and at her mercy. She stepped away from his reaching hands and pushed him roughly back. The back of his knees met the bed, and he followed his momentum until he was sprawled back on the bed, a supplicant before his goddess, and she dropped her panties before she climbed on the bed next to him.

He reached for her, preparing to claim the superior position, but she beat him to the punch. She held him fast with a staying hand to his chest and brushed away his searching hands. “Detective?” he asked, raising an eyebrow in inquiry.

Her gaze traveled over his body, and her hands mapped out the contours of his chest as she said huskily, “It’s my turn, Lucifer. My turn to touch, worship, lick, and explore. My turn to make you lose control.”

Lucifer’s heart leapt in his chest, and his cock flexed as if reaching for her. Who was he to take away her chance to be in charge? He was no longer a king or a ruler; he was simply hers. Without waiting for his acquiescence, she leaned down to lick a wide stripe across his small, beaded nipple, and when he gasped, she did it again. Her hands gripped and squeezed his pecs as she nipped and lathed each nipple, biting the firm muscles between, until he thought he would lose his mind from the sensory overload. He tried to touch her in return, but she was having none of it, commanding him to keep his hands to himself.

He groaned with frustrated longing, but he fisted his hands in the sheets to prevent himself from grabbing her as she worked her way steadily down his chest. She left no patch of skin untouched, no muscle unappreciated, and spent several long minutes tracing the grooves of his Adonis belt with her tongue. His abs clenched and his cock jerked with each scratch of her fingernails and nip of her teeth as she finally reached the part of him that craved her the most.

She fisted his length in her hand and looked at him from beneath her eyelashes with a sultry smile. “I never used to enjoy giving head, but now it’s all I can think about,” she confessed her sin with a lick of her lips.

Lucifer closed his eyes against the sight her lowering her mouth over him and clenched his hands in the sheets until his knuckles turned white from the strain. He could feel the flat of her tongue sweep across the crown, stealing the sticky bead of moisture at the tip, before she took him further into the hot, wet recesses of her mouth. “Bloody fucking hell,” he cursed, fighting not to thrust down her throat as she bobbed and sucked at his length. Her lips were stretched wide by his girth, but she worked him deeper and deeper to the back of her throat until he could feel her swallow around the head.

Her hands stayed busy, cupping and tugging at his sack, rubbing and pressing against his perineum, and sliding and twisting over his shaft as she systematically broke him down into a panting, quaking mess. Each time his hips broke loose to thrust deeper, she pinned his hipbones to the bed and backed off the pressure and suction until he calmed down and begged her for more. All he could do was watch her through hooded eyes and accept the pleasure she pulled from his gut with each pass of her hands and lips. She tested his legendary stamina and lured him to the very edge of spilling himself in her mouth, but he would not be cheated of feeling her cunt take the place of her mouth.

He groaned as she gently scraped her teeth over the wide crown of his cock, and he finally broke down and called uncle. “Enough, Detective, please,” he entreated her. “I need to be inside you when I come.”

As if she had been waiting for him to break, she gave one last lick to the crown before crawling up his body. She straddled his waist and reached between her thighs to find his angrily throbbing shaft and ran the head along the hot, slick lips of her sex. “You can touch me, but I’m still in control,” she warned him, her voice dripping honey and lust.

Eagerly, he ran his palms along the toned thighs bracketing his hips, and he held his breath as she slowly lowered herself onto his cock. A tortured groan ripped from his chest as her cunt parted around his girth and hugged his length with a tight grip. She bit her bottom lip on a whimper, her fingernails digging crescents in his abs, as she advanced and retreated until her ass lay flush against his thighs and his cock lay snug at the end of her channel.

She rested atop him, her breasts rising and falling with each breath as she swiveled her hips to ensure there was no more room left inside of her. She tipped her head back, her golden blonde hair cascading like a waterfall down her spine, and moaned, “So full. I swear I can feel you in my throat.”

His hands found purchase on her hips, and he couldn’t resist thrusting himself deeper just to hear her moan again. “You’re a perfect fit, Detective. The missing piece that makes me whole.”

She leaned forward to brace her hands on his chest, and he took advantage of her position to cup and knead her pert breasts in his palms. Her fingernails bit into his flesh as her hips began to move, and she rode him with slow, torturous strokes that made his hands tremble with want. No matter how badly he wanted to thrust up into her, he held himself back so that she could set the pace. Each time she rose up on her knees, he could see her nether lips sliding along his shaft, and each time she lowered herself, he could feel her walls pulsing around him.

He lost track of time as she lured him into her web of passion. Their hands roamed and touched, their lips kissed and traded breaths, and her hips danced and moved over him with steadily increasing speed and force. He struggled to hold on to his climax as sweat beaded across their bodies and her juices bathed his cock, and she rode him harder as she chanted, “Yes, yes, yes! Lucifer, I’m so close!”

He knew he wouldn’t be able to last much longer, so he spread his hands wide across her hips and reached for her clit with his thumb. Each time she rose and fell, the pad of his thumb rubbed across the stretched, swollen bundle of nerves. He knew when she had reached the peak and hovered, and he pressed against her clit to send her over the edge. Her cunt clamped down like a vice around his cock, and she wailed as her climax swept through her body with savage tremors. He took over the labor of thrusting through her contracting channel and continued to stroke her clit as her body shook and trembled through the aftershocks of her coming. Only when she collapsed against his chest in exhausted completion did he seek his own release.

With one hand fisted in her hair and the other banded across her waist, he drove himself mercilessly into her depths. His breaths blew hotly across her ear, and he spoke without hearing his words, too lost in the vortex of pleasure her body brought him to think. “Never thought I would feel this again...thought I had lost you forever...I won’t let Him take you from me...never leave me again,” he panted harshly into her neck as he pounded into her with strokes that resounded through the room.

His guts twisted into knots, his balls pulled up tight against her, and he came with a shuddering groan deep inside her. With each burst of his come inside her, his climax crested higher and higher until he didn’t know where he ended, and she began. With one last thrust, he spent the last of his seed, and collapsed in exhausted ecstasy beneath her.

Neither of them spoke for long moments as they floated together in the contentment of their joining. Chloe’s head rested against his chest, her ear directly over his wildly beating heart, and her hand feathered caresses across his ribs as she caught her breath. Lucifer reveled in the slight weight of her draped across him, the scent of her hair in his nose, and the feel of her swollen channel still snug around his cock. His hands were restless, but unhurried, as he counted the bumps of her spine and explored the rounded curve of her ass, and he wondered how quickly she would be up for round two.

Some time later, when her breaths evened out and the sweat had cooled and dried on her skin, Chloe spoke for the first time. “Lucifer?”

He had not been this relaxed and peaceful in his memory, and his eyes were closed with lazy contentment. “Yes, my love?”

She paused for a loaded moment before she asked, “Why did you say that you thought you’d lost me forever? Who were you talking about when you said you wouldn’t let Him take me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Friends, this didn't end up quite as lighthearted as I'd hoped, but the smut still felt pretty hot to me! I hope you enjoyed their celebration and sexy times, because I sure did! 
> 
> Alas, there is only one more chapter left in this story. I know! I know! I'm sad, too! You guys have been so awesome and had me feeling the love for weeks now. However, in past fics in other fandoms, I have sometimes added a "Bonus Chapter" at the end featuring a different character. How would you feel reading about what really happened at Hell's Gates and after through Maze's eyes? It would be interesting, to say the least! Let me know what you think, because I value every voice. 
> 
> I'll be back with the final chapter soon, friends! Peace, love, and ice cream sundaes for everyone!***


	16. Lucifer

Lucifer’s eyes popped open and he froze beneath her. Had he said those things? He couldn’t remember what he’d said when he’d been in the final throes of his orgasm, but he must have let something slip if she was asking such pointed questions.

When he didn’t answer her immediately, she rose up on her elbows to look down into his face. She searched his gaze for answers as she asked, “Does this have something to do with what happened at the gates? Talk to me, Lucifer, please. Whatever happened is obviously still on your mind. Let me help carry the burden.”

All the anguish, pain, and heartbreak clawed at his insides until he felt like he was suffocating. He felt trapped and claustrophobic, pinned by her concerned gaze, and he had to escape. With extreme care, he rolled her off of him to the bed and stood to his feet. He needed a drink and a smoke, not necessarily in that order.

He turned his back to her and hastily pulled his pants up his legs as he replied shortly, “There’s no point in discussing it, Detective. The lock has been changed, and we are both on the other side of it. What’s happened is done, and all’s well that ends well.”

Without waiting for her reply, he stepped down into his living room and headed for the bar on bare feet. Once there, he pulled the stopper on the decanter and poured two fingers of bourbon in a glass and tossed it back in one swallow. Picking up a cigarette from the tray, he lit the tip and poured himself another hefty draft of the amber liquor. A whisper of silk reached his ears, and he turned in time to see Chloe stepping down from his bedroom. She looked like an ethereal goddess with her sex-tossed hair tumbling over her shoulders and his bedsheet wrapped around her torso.

She joined him at the bar, and he silently offered her a drink, but she waved it away. “Lucifer, you can’t just turn off emotions and hope they go away. You can’t just decide that a topic is closed, especially when it involves me. That’s not how a relationship works, and unless you didn’t realize it, that’s what we have going on here.”

Lucifer exhaled a cloud of smoke, but when she waved away the fumes, he stubbed the cigarette out in an ashtray. “What we have together is so much more than just a relationship, love. You bear my mark on your body and soul. You belong to me, and I to you. That is the only thing that matters.”

Her hand fluttered over the mark peeking out from beneath the sheet, and her eyebrows furrowed as if she were trying hard to remember something. “Yes, that’s true, but we are also partners,” she reminded him doggedly. “Partners work together and share information to solve problems. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me. Please, Lucifer. Just tell me what happened.”

Anger, his familiar friend, rose up inside him, and the glass tumbler in his hand cracked from the force of his grip. There would be no more evading the truth; he knew first-hand how stubborn and determined his detective could be when on a case. He would have no choice but to tell her, but he couldn’t bring himself to reveal everything. The wounds were still too raw.

“You want to know what happened, do you?” he replied caustically. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but pray remember that I tried to spare you from this knowledge.”

Chloe sighed wearily and replied, “Just tell me.”

He drained the bourbon in the cracked glass once more and wished that it would dull the inferno of rage and helplessness roaring through his chest, but his tolerance for liquor was too great for it to do him any good. Like ripping off a bandage, he told her, “You died, Detective. Your soul and your physical body had sustained too much damage and blood loss at the hands of Legion, and you began to fade in my arms. Foolishly, I still allowed you to help me change the lock on the gates, but you did not survive it. Your soul came untethered from your body, and I flew back to the human realm with empty arms.”

He knew it was a mistake to tell her, and she proved him right when all the color drained from her face and her knees gave way. He caught her quickly and sat her down on a stool before splashing more bourbon in his glass and forcing it into her shaking hand. “Drink this, love,” he commanded her, his tone gentle but insistent. “It will help.”

He helped steady her hand as she raised the cracked tumbler to her lips. She took a large swallow of fiery liquor, quickly coughing and gasping for breath as it burned its way down her throat. He was gratified to see the color return to her pallid cheeks, but he still made her take another drink before he was satisfied that she would not faint.

Her voice was raspy from the liquor when she finally said, “I died? But...how? I’m alive and I have never felt better or healthier in my life. There are no wounds or scars on my body, and I feel perfectly fine. How is that possible?”

Lucifer closed his eyes and took a deep breath for courage. As he exhaled, he grit his teeth against the pain he knew was coming and flexed his shoulders. With a familiar _whoosh_ , he freed his angel wings and spread them open for her to see. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight, and tears welled up and spilled over her cheeks like a silent waterfall as she stifled a cry behind her hand.

He knew what she was seeing even though he had not been brave enough to view the damage himself. Wide swaths of glowing white feathers were missing, some of them were bent and twisted, and still others were covered in dried blood. Large patches of jagged, raw flesh lay open to the bone and one wing hung limp from damaged tendons and nerves. He clenched his jaw against the agony radiating through his body, and with a pained grunt, he withdrew them back into himself.

Her voice was choked with her tears as she whispered, “What did you do? My god, Lucifer. What did you do?”

He exhaled a shaky breath as the pain receded, and he opened his arms to catch her as she launched herself against his chest with shuddering sobs. He ran his hand in soothing strokes over her silky hair and murmured, “Shh, Detective. Don’t waste your tears on me. They will heal with time.”

She pulled back to look up into his face, and his heart broke at the sight of her tears. “I don’t understand. What happened to you, Lucifer?”

He cupped her cheek in his hand and used his thumb to brush away the moisture from her cheek. “Angel feathers are a divine creation of my father, Detective. As such, they contain the power to heal illness and deadly wounds. I used them to help restore your physical body.”

Instead of calming her, his words only made her cry harder. “But...but...they look like they’ve been mangled. That is too much damage for just a few feathers. You must be in so much pain.”

He pressed her cheek back to his chest and continued to hold her as she cried. “I admit that I was not quite in my right mind when I returned without you. Your physical body had no pulse and you weren’t breathing. I was desperate to save you, and I was uncaring of the damage I did to myself if it meant you would come back to me.”

Her arms squeezed his waist tightly, and she sniffled against his chest. “Is that how I was brought back? Through your feathers?” she asked, her voice muffled and sad.

Flashbacks from that terrible night replayed in his mind, and he blinked rapidly to dispel them. “Not quite,” he admitted softly. “Without your soul, your body was merely a shell and would not respond to the healing properties. I had to call you back from the silver gates. Only when your soul returned to your body did the feathers repair the damage.”

Though her breaths still caught in her chest, her tears slowed, and she eased away from his hold. He released her reluctantly and waited for the final question he knew she would ask. He did not have to wait for long.

Chloe scrubbed her face with his sheet and took a deep, shuddering breath. “How did you call me back, Lucifer?”

He reached out and ran his knuckles over the sweep of her cheek, down her neck, and over her clavicle until he reached the scrolled, crimson mark over her heart. He placed his palm over top of it and answered simply, “With this.”

Chloe bracketed his hand with her own and she looked into his eyes for a long, weighted moment. “You saved me, Lucifer,” she breathed, one final tear rolling down her cheek. “You brought me home.”

All the pent-up anguish and pain released its tight grip on his soul, and it filled back up with hope and love. “No, Detective. You’ve got it wrong. You are the one that saved me. You are the one that gave me a home. With you.”

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her lips for a soft, clinging kiss. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” she breathed into his mouth over and over between kisses.

His heart filled full to bursting, and he wanted to tell her how she made him feel, but words didn’t feel like enough. With one final kiss, he pulled away, gripped her hand, and led her over to the sleek, shiny piano next to the full-length window that looked out over Los Angeles. He settled her on one side of the bench and claimed the other side for himself before lifting the cover to reveal the black and white keys.

“Have I ever told you that there is no music in Hell, Detective?” he asked her rhetorically. Still, he waited for her to shake her head before he continued, “I love music. It says so much more than mere words can say. Shall I play for you?”

She nodded shyly and replied, “I would love that.”

His fingers began to play a soft, slow melody, and he explained, “This song is a simple one, but it’s recently become one of my favorites. The Cure released it first, but I think Adele’s version fits the tone of the song better. Appropriately enough, it’s called _Lovesong_.”

With no further ado, he allowed the melody to swell as he sang:

 

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am home again._

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am whole again._

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am young again._

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am fun again._

_However far away, I will always love you._

_However long I stay, I will always love you._

_Whatever words I say, I will always love you._

_I will always love you._

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am free again._

_Whenever I’m alone with you,_

_You make me feel like I am clean again._

_However far away, I will always love you._

_However long I stay, I will always love you._

_Whatever words I say, I will always love you._

_I will always love you._

As the last notes faded away, he turned to face her. Her tears were gone, but they still shimmered in her bright blue eyes. Without a word, she released her hold on the sheet and allowed it to fall to the floor. Her voice caught with emotion as she said, “Lucifer, take me to bed and make love to me.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He stood from the bench and lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed. He lay her gently against the pillows, and pausing only long enough to shed his slacks, he followed her down. Chloe opened her arms and her legs to receive him, and he settled his weight atop her, cradled between her thighs. No more words were necessary between them; only the press of their lips and the touch of their skin.

In the billions of years of his existence, Lucifer had fucked and had sex millions of times, but he’d never made love to anyone until her. There was no frenzied need spurring him toward climax, no desperate desire driving him to claim her, and no feverish rush to spill himself inside her. There was only her, only him, only the two of them leisurely climbing the stairway to heaven together.

When he finally sank inside of her hot, slick channel, she closed her eyes and moaned quietly. He flexed his hips, thrusting to the very end of her and murmured, “Don’t shut your eyes, Detective. I can’t bear to see them closed again so soon.”

Her eyelashes fluttered and she focused on him as their bodies parted and met in a slow, seductive dance. He wanted this to last forever, needed to feel her for an eternity, but their climaxes would not stay at bay. “Lucifer,” she breathed his name as her hips rose to meet each thrust. “Lucifer, I need you, I want you, I love you.”

He pressed his forehead to hers and canted his hips until his cock brushed over the bundle of nerves hidden along the front wall of her channel. Her breaths came faster, her pulse quickened, and her cunt tightened around him as he steadily drove her higher and higher. His own ending beckoned him, and his cock swelled with impending release, but he held back until she could join him. When her legs trembled and her body convulsed beneath him, he allowed his own climax to crest along with her, and they soared together on the wings of ecstasy.

They lay there for some time, locked in each other’s embrace, as they floated softly back down to earth. He had never felt so content and happy in his long existence, and this moment was worth every torture, pain, fear, and despair that he’d experienced throughout his long lifetime. He never thought he would feel the kind of love he’d witnessed in others, and he never imagined that he would be worthy of such beauty, kindness, and peace. He was truly Blessed.

Lucifer closed his eyes and visualized the face of his father, still clear and unfazed by billions of years of separation. For the first time, without anger and without resentment, he spoke to Him from his soul. _Thank you, Father. Thank you for this gift. I will strive to be worthy of her._

“I love you, Lucifer,” Chloe whispered, her voice reaching him in the dark.

He kissed her lips softly and replied, “I will always love you, Detective. There are no gates that will ever stand between us, and we will never be parted again. So help me, God.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I'm not crying, you're crying! Okay, I was crying, too, while I wrote this because I am a mushy meatball of emotion.  
> This chapter officially marks the end of this series, my friends, but no fears! There will be one final Bonus Chapter from Maze's POV. While we learned a little bit about what happened at the gates, Lucifer didn't tell her everything. Maze, however, will reveal it all. I have another glorious weekend free of obligations ahead of me, so I plan to make this a LONG chapter. I'm hoping to have it done by Saturday evening, but we'll see how that pans out. 
> 
> I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't thank you y'all enough for the kudos and kind words. Each time you leave your feedback, you gift me with smiles, laughter, and love. You are all amazing people with good hearts and dirty minds, and I love you all. Thank you for being with me on this journey. I couldn't have done it without you.***


	17. BONUS CHAPTER: Maze

_Humans are so weird,_ thought Maze. _But the small ones aren’t so bad._

Maze reached down to trace her finger over the dark, downy skin of the baby’s face that she held in her arms. She found him endlessly fascinating, even when he smelled funny or cried. Charlie was the very first baby she’d ever encountered up close in her billions of years of existence. There were no babies or children in Hell; demons were spawned from the bowels of The Pit as fully formed adults, and Lucifer’s father did not Judge the souls of innocents. They were delivered straight to the silver gates and welcomed into the Silver City with open arms.

“You know, you’re a pretty awesome little dude for a half angel,” she told him conversationally. “If you grow up with your father’s good looks and get everything else from your mother, I will have to beat the women off you.” She paused for a thoughtful minute before adding, “Or guys. Whatever gets your rocks off, little man. I’ve got your back.”

Charlie waved his fat little fist in the air and gurgled happily, and Maze smiled and gave him a gentle fist-bump. She relaxed back in the rocking chair and resumed patting his diapered bottom like Linda had shown her. She wasn’t entirely sure why babies required the monotonous motion in addition to rocking in order to fall asleep, but she was hardly an expert in the matter. His mother, having finished nourishing him from her swollen breasts, was currently napping on the couch nearby. Apparently, human babies required feeding every three to four hours, and it was particularly draining for the mother, both literally and figuratively.

“I don’t know why she won’t let me taste her milk,” she told him as she set the chair to gently rocking. “She keeps telling me that it’s inappropriate to ask, but I don’t see why. You seem to thrive on it, and it can’t be bad if it comes from a woman’s breasts. They are already delicious without the milk; I would assume they would be even more so with it.”

Charlie apparently agreed with her, because he smiled wide enough to flash his toothless gums at her. He didn’t appear at all sleepy to her; his big brown eyes were wide open and fixated on her face, and his arms and legs flailed and kicked inside the buttoned one-piece garment that proclaimed _DON’T MAKE ME CALL MY AUNTIE._ Maze had found the so-called “sleeper” online, and she had ordered one in every size they offered.

“Look, kid, your mom made me promise to get you to sleep. She’s insisting that you need to ‘get into a routine’ and that she doesn’t want you to ‘flip your days and nights’. Whatever that means,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “Personally, I think you have this shit down-pat. You eat when you’re hungry, you poop when and where you need to, and you sleep when you’re tired. If I didn’t know you were half angel, I would swear you were a demon.”

Charlie blew spit bubbles in response. “I know, right? But your mom seems to know what she’s doing, so I guess we better get on with the program. Let’s see...what other strange customs and rituals do human children need in order to fall asleep? When I lived with Decker, she would always make Trixie brush her teeth, but you don’t have any yet. You’ve already had a bath today, so that only leaves a bedtime story. Would you like that?”

The baby blinked, and Maze felt the vibrations of gas bubbles escaping his bottom, and she took that as his agreement to the plan. “I knew I liked you, Charlie. How about I tell you the story of how your Uncle Lucifer and Aunt Chloe escaped from Hell? It has all the makings of a great story. There was blood, tears, and death. Oh, and a happy ending, too, if that’s your sort of thing.”

And so, Maze began her tale. She told him about Chloe’s soul traveling through the black gates with the help of Lucifer’s mark, and how she’d stayed behind to watch over her body. While she didn’t have many details about Chloe’s time there, she took the liberty of filling in the gaps with her imagination. She told Charlie all about her bitch of a sister, Legion, and how she plotted to get rid of Chloe and take her place, and she described how she had arrived to rescue her just in the nick of time. Maze had no problem painting herself as the hero of this tale; as far as she was concerned, it was well-deserved.

“And that’s when we arrived at the gates of Hell. Your Aunt Chloe was in bad shape, Charlie. Her body back home was dying, and her soul began to fade as it started to come untethered from her physical body. I managed to bring her back by yelling at her and pinching her arm, but I knew it wouldn’t last for long if we didn’t reunite her with her body. However, there was one last thing that had to be done. The gates needed to be changed so that my brethren couldn’t follow behind us. Lucifer had a plan, though. He was going to change the lock so that anyone that tried to leave would end up at the silver gates of your grandfather’s kingdom instead of here on earth. There was only one little problem...”

.

.

.

Maze watched with trepidation as Lucifer placed his hand on the glowing, crimson sigil of his mark on the gates. He clenched his jaw and pushed against them until the black metal groaned and bent, but still it did not change.

“It isn’t working,” he said through gritted teeth. “I know it can be done, but it isn’t working!”

Chloe, still cradled gently against his chest, seemed to glow with ethereal light, and she reached out to twine her fingers through his own and pressed them both against the lock. Her voice was calm and rang with confident divinity as she declared, “You don’t need to change the lock, Lucifer. It just needs to be Blessed.”

The sigil flared beneath their hands, and Maze threw her arm up to cover her eyes as pure white light illuminated the shadowy darkness of Hell with holy light. She could feel the exposed skin on her arms, neck, and face begin to bubble and burn beneath the glare, and a mixed cry of pain and longing escaped from her throat. She was blinded by the light, consumed in its divine power, and tortured screams ripped from her throat as she fell to her knees in supplication.

She thought she would burn until she was no more than ashes, but the light dimmed as she was enclosed by a shield made of feathers. “I’ve got you, Maze. It’s nearly complete. The lock is changing,” Amenadiel’s voice reached her ears as he wrapped her in his wings.

She sighed with relief as his feathers brushed over her skin with cool, healing silk, and she could feel the singed, blistered skin reform with new, unblemished flesh. In mere seconds, the Blessed light began to fade, and Maze blinked her eyes until her vision returned. Amenadiel withdrew the shelter of his wings, and she regained her feet to gaze upon the gates. Lucifer’s sigil was still there, but it no longer glowed with crimson. Now, it radiated with softly pulsing pure light, and she found that she couldn’t stare at it directly for long.

“We did it, Detective,” Lucifer’s voice was a mixture of pride and awe. “We changed the lock!”

Maze looked to the woman still held in Lucifer’s arms, and her stomach dropped as Chloe’s form began to fade until she was nearly opaque. “Lucifer, she’s fading again!” she warned him, grabbing Amenadiel’s hand and running for the gates. “Hurry!”

“Detective?” Lucifer asked, his voice raised in alarm. “Chloe! Open your eyes, love. Please, just hang on a bit longer.” He held her closer as his foot lashed out to connect with the gates, and they swung open on rusty hinges. His wings spread wide and he launched them into the air, not waiting to ensure that his brother and Maze were behind him.

Amenadiel scooped her up in his arms, and she grabbed ahold of his neck as he flexed his shoulders and beat his wings against the air to race after them. When the celestial breezes blew cool and fresh against her face, and they had cleared the gates, the twisted black metal clanged shut behind them with a finality that resonated inside her down to the marrow. Maze knew she would never see them again, would never return to the place of her creation, and she was glad.

They flew abreast of Lucifer, Amenadiel’s wings slicing through the breeze to catch up to him, and Maze’s eyebrows lowered in concern. Chloe was no more than a ghost in his arms, and she knew with a sickening certainty that they were too late. With one last sigh, Chloe dropped Lucifer’s hand, and she disappeared.

“NOOOO!” his voice boomed and carried throughout the celestial realm. “Come back, Detective! We were so close to having it all!”

The desperate pain and rage and heartbreak in his voice brought unfamiliar tears to Maze’s eyes, and she buried her face in Amenadiel’s neck and sobbed. For the first time ever, she cried for a human soul. Chloe Decker had been more than just her friend; she’d been Maze’s roommate, her confidante, and her teacher when it came to human emotions and customs. She had learned so much from the human woman with a good heart and even better body. She’s brought Trixie into Maze’s life and showed her the value and purpose of being a family. She’d given Maze guidance, acceptance, and most importantly, she’d given her love. And now, she was gone.

Lucifer tucked his wings and dove toward the gates of the human realm that always remained open, and Amenadiel did the same. The celestial breezes dried her tears as she clung to him, and a new hope unfurled in her chest as they entered back into earth, heading straight for Chloe’s home. Maybe they could save her and bring her back if they could reach her body in time. Between the two angels, they could surely heal her and bring her back to them.

Maze blinked to restore moisture to her eyes that had been stolen by their flight, and she saw the twinkling lights of Los Angeles guiding them home. She had no idea how long they’d been gone, because it had been a sunny afternoon when they left, but now it was the darkest part of night. The lights whizzed past them as they shot through the air, and it wasn’t long before Decker’s building appeared before them.

Amenadiel spread his wings to catch the air and slow their descent, but Lucifer sped faster. Maze gasped in shock as he crashed through the large windows of Chloe’s bedroom with a sound of breaking glass, splintering wood, and familiar terrified screams. Their landing was much smoother than his, and Maze released her hold on Amenadiel’s neck and hopped to the floor at a run.

The scene was pure chaos. Lucifer stood by the bed, his wings covered in broken glass and blood, and one of them of was bent and hung limp, but he’d didn’t seem to care. He was too focused on gripping, twisting, and yanking handfuls of feathers from his wings and showering the bed where the petite form of Linda was straddled across Chloe’s pale and unmoving body while she performed CPR compressions on her chest.

“...27, 28, 29, 30!” Linda counted out loud. She glanced over at the new arrivals and yelled, “Maze! Come help me!”

She didn’t have to be told twice. She rushed to her friend’s side and followed her barked directions on how to hold Chloe’s head and give two breaths after each count of 30. She could hear Charlie wailing in the other room, and Amenadiel rushed past them to console his son as they worked feverishly to bring a pulse back to Chloe’s still heart.

She had no idea how long they worked over her, but eventually Linda stopped pushing against Chloe’s chest and sat back with defeat. The petite therapist was covered in sweat, her arms were trembling, and her glasses were askew on her pert nose. “Lucifer, I’m so sorry, but we’ve done all we can do. She’s gone.”

“No!” he growled with denial. He picked Linda up and set her on the floor before grasping Maze’s wrist and pulling her to her feet. “We just need more feathers. Mazikeen, give me your blades.”

Tears tracked down her face, but she didn’t feel them. Without question, she handed him one of her demon blades, and he began slicing large swathes of feathers that he lay over Chloe like a macabre blanket. He was frenzied in his desire to save her, and Maze looked away from the carnage of blood-soaked feathers obscuring the lifeless body of her friend. No matter how many feathers Lucifer covered her with, Chloe did not stir.

Amenadiel stood in the doorway, one arm cradling his son and the other holding his weeping mother, and he entreated his brother, “Luci, stop! Her soul has passed on to our father. There is no healing the body without the soul. I’m so sorry, brother.”

With a roar of anguish that shook the building, Lucifer gathered her limp body against his chest and held her to him as he rocked her back and forth. “No. No, I will not allow Him to take her. Come back to me, Detective. You can’t leave me all alone again, not when I just found you.”

A shimmer of crimson light began to glow from between them, and Maze gasped. “Lucifer! Your mark!”

He pulled away from her and gazed with stunned confusion at his sigil softly glowing beneath the torn, bloodied remnants of his shirt that she wore, and he lay her back against the bed and ripped it apart for a better look. The scrolled mark of his name flickered and began to fade, but Lucifer covered it with his hand, his eyes bled to bright red, and his voice echoed through the room with power forged in the fires of Hell. “I am Lucifer Morningstar, Lightbringer, Samael, and Ruler of Hell! I have marked this soul as mine, and I command it to RETURN!”

Florescent blue flames ignited beneath his hand, and Chloe’s body bowed off the bed. Her lips fell open and her chest expanded on a loud gasp, and she collapsed back on the bed. Maze crept closer to the bed and she stared at Decker’s chest. When she saw it moving with breaths, tears spilled over to her cheeks and she stifled a cry behind her hand. Linda freed herself from Amenadiel’s arms and rushed to the bed to place two fingers along her jugular, and they all waited with anxious suspense for her diagnosis.

With a beatific smile, Linda announced, “She’s alive. Her pulse is strong, and her respirations are normal.”

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Amenadiel announced with wonder in his tone. “Only our father can command human souls.”

Lucifer reached out to gently arrange the bloodied and broken feathers across Chloe’s bruised and swollen face and bullet wound, and Maze snapped out of her shock to help him lay more of them beneath her against the long, jagged slice across her shoulders. “Not this one, brother,” Lucifer replied, his voice choked with emotion. “He gifted her soul to me.”

Maze scanned all along Chloe’s body, and hope renewed in her heart when Chloe’s cheek resumed its normal, beautiful appearance and the bullet wound shrunk until it expelled the bullet and the skin healed without a scar. The only thing left was for Decker to open her eyes, but they remained stubbornly closed.

They discussed amongst themselves about taking her to the human hospital, but Lucifer refused to allow her out of his sight. After Linda performed a more thorough examination, she determined that Chloe was merely sleeping. She responded with grumpy murmurs when they shifted her, hummed happily when Lucifer kissed her lips, and even rolled to her side to snuggle into the ruined sheets of her mattress.

Eventually, Amenadiel and Linda took their leave, Charlie in tow, with assurances that they would check in with them the next day. Maze looked around at the wrecked shambles of Chloe’s room and winced. Surprisingly, none of her neighbors had reported the noise to the police, because no sirens sounded, and no one pounded on the door to demand entrance. Either way, they couldn’t stay there. Since Lucifer’s wings were currently out of commission, Maze grabbed the keys from Chloe’s purse, and Lucifer carried her to the car, and they drove to Lux.

The next two days were whirlwind of activity. Working together, Maze and Lucifer bathed Chloe and settled her into his bed. Neither of them wanted to leave her side, so they took turns watching over her so that one or both of them would be there when she woke. While Lucifer handled the running of Lux, Maze reclined on the bed next to her friend and texted with Trixie to keep the little girl from worrying about her mother. When Lucifer returned, Maze would slip out and go to Chloe’s apartment where construction workers were being paid triple to repair the damage to her windows and room and supervised the delivery of a new bed and mattress.

As one day turned into two, however, Maze began to worry. Why wasn’t she waking up? What was taking her so long? She paced around Lucifer’s penthouse, haunted her bedside, and second-guessed their decision not to take her to the hospital, but Lucifer seemed unworried. He insisted that Chloe’s body and soul were simply resting and regaining strength, and that his detective would wake at any time fully restored. He kept telling Maze to have faith, but she only snorted and replied that faith was for the weak. Still, she couldn’t help but hope that he was right.

.

.

.

“...and that’s when she opened her eyes,” Maze finished her tale.

She glanced down to see how Charlie had enjoyed his bedtime story, and she found him fast asleep while sucking on his thumb. Her eyes softened, and she glanced around to make sure no one was watching her before leaning down to press a kiss against his powder-scented forehead.

“Your mom says we should let you sleep in your crib so that you’ll get used to it, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. I think I’ll just hold you for a little while longer,” she whispered conspiratorially in his ear. “If she finds out, I’ll just tell her that the Devil made me do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This is the end, the end of my story! You guys, I have had so much fun writing this series over the past few weeks! I have met some of the coolest, nicest people, and I have laughed and smiled every day. Thank you to all of you for you unwavering support, gentle corrections, and fantastic feedback. I will definitely be back with more soon, but I need a break to rest and recharge. I'll see all of you again very soon. Peace, love, kindness, and chocolate kisses to all of you!***


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